Heather Watson at IDA Gallery (Los Angeles)

Untitled (sidewalk series), Spring 2012. Oil stick on paper, 40 X 26 inches.

Heather Watson’s first solo show in Los Angeles at IDA gallery is like reading a personal diary in which strokes become a language. Watson shows oil stick on paper, sumi ink on paper, thread on linen, and photographs. The works are centered on process and meaning of mark-making.

When walking into the space, one sees works in a variety of media that are arranged unevenly. This display takes away the sense of ostentation and structure that some pieces could have if isolated. The uneven arrangement and media diversity in Watson’s works, on the contrary, creates a dialogue revolving around exploration and playfulness.

In each piece I imagined the artist’s body in the process of making the work. Pressure and speed are constantly shifting. In the piece like Plain Weave, the artist’s body seems to move close to the surface, mechanically and slowly. On Aug 4^th, 1988 (section 1 of 2), the entire weight of Watson’s body seems to press against the paper, in one slow and struggling movement. The piece Untitled (sidewalk series), however, only complicates this relationship between stroke and body. In this piece, a photograph of single spray line on the concrete, the viewer is left unsure of the artist’s body in the process of making the piece.

Despite the fact that the artist’s physical relationship to her work is variable, Watson shows her attention to precision in every piece. Precision seems to be a tool, which Watson uses to create meaning.  In every piece, Watson’s strokes are assertive—they create a sense of space, perspective, and form that seems to have specific emotional meaning. Watson’s play with meaning becomes even more apparent when she displays pieces that are composed of lines next to pieces that are composed of written words. After some time in the exhibition space, I saw lines as written words and written words as lines.

Georgia O’Keeffe once said: “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I have no words for.”  What happens when written words become form and form become written words like in Watson’s pieces? I left the exhibition with this question in mind.

Heather Watson website: www.watsonheather.com