SHARKA HYLAND
Biography
„I am interested in how literary language transcends the distinction between the verbal and the visual. Many of the images we remember have no physical existence. They are evoked by the words of great writers. Our mind creates them as we read. Each image is unique. It is brought into being as we integrate the author’s words into our individual life experience. These complex images exist only in the readers mind; the text is their only material form. I draw the texts using historically and culturally appropriate typefaces, in a size and format one might encounter while reading a book. The conjured image is the subject of the drawing. Ekphrasis may generally be translated as ‚description‘. It originally referred to a vivid evocation of an object or a situation. Today the term is used to refer to a verbal representation of visual representation (typically, a poem or a text based on a work of art). It is sometimes said that a verbal description cannot produce the same impact as a work of visual art. I would argue that the true ambition of ekphrastic writing is to produce a new work of art, one that does not bridge the chasm between word and image but remains poised above it. In my most recent work, I have been expanding on this concept – a sensory experience mediated by language – by exploring the notion of auditory ekphrasis, of literary language that conveys the effects of music (or sound in general), as well as of silence.“ Sharka Hyland
„Sharka Hyland challenges us not only with the re-interpretation of drawing but also of narrative. Most of us use some sort of narrative in creating a work of art. What if the work of art is the narrative? What if the narrative, pure and unaltered, even the text itself, is the work of art? Sharka Hyland shows graphite drawings of passages taken from famous novels or short stories or poems. To be clear the drawings are of the actual text – not depictions of the scene or story. All the texts are in the original language. We all wait for a piece of art work to give us an image. Sharka Hyland challenges that expectation by giving us a perfect image, only written, an image of text. The texts she picks are extremely visual, and when read, envelop the imagination of the reader (viewer). The artist gives us an image stripped of the image; it is up to the viewers to create it or re-create it, uniquely, in their minds. Apart from playing with such an engaging concept, the texts are beautifully flawlessly drawn. For a lover of the minimal, the works stand strong aesthetically, even when not read. The text itself, its shape and texture, is pristine and perfect in its simplicity. – I could not be more excited about Sharka Hyland’s drawings.“ Sabina Tichindeleanu