Sarah Knill-Jones
Hopscotch

RAYUELA (by Sarah Knill-Jones)

My most recent body of work has been inspired by Clarice Lispector’s novel ‘The Passion According to G.H.’ The singular nature of her writing is close to that of James Joyce (whose Ulysses has inspired a previous body of work) but Lispector’s prose is infused with the culture and philosophy of Brazil, where I currently live. The last few months I have focused on monoprints, which give great freedom, but within certain technical restraints, and I would like to push the medium further. I’m particularly happy to spend time in Buenos Aires, understand more about Argentina, and draw on the great Julio Cortazar’s ‘Rayuela’ for inspiration.

“Rayuela”, written by Julio Cortázar, will be the starting point for a series of big scale drawings done in charcoal that will be transformed into prints.

A line of thought which traces connections between my French and British nationalities, my temporary place of residence in Rio and the language and culture of Argentina. I use the prose of Cortázar as a starting point, to look backwards in order to look forwards in my practice as an artist.

As the character Oliveira says in Rayuela: “The same thing happens to everybody, the statue of Janus is a useless waste, the truth is that after forty years of age we have our real face on the back of our heads, looking desperately backwards. It is what in all truth is called a commonplace. You can’t do anything about it, that’s about the strength of it”.