Terra Incognita: The Imaginary Worlds of Charles Avery
The draftsman as philosopher: for the Scotsman Charles Avery, the chance to be
an artist not only goes hand in hand with the privilege of being alone.
It’s also about duty – the duty to think. Louise Gray
has talked to him about real and imaginary island realms, Plato’s cave
allegory, and professional dreamers.
Charles Avery, Untitled,
from the
series That that dogs don't know they know, 2000,
Deutsche Bank Collection
The next time you stand
in front of a pencil drawing or an installation – and not necessarily one
by the Scottish artist
Charles Avery, either – you would do well to ponder what it is you’re
actually looking at. Avery, a draughtsman of clear and exquisite talent,
is a detailed and thoughtful artist – which is to say that the thought
process that underpins his productions can seem formidable. “I am not into
making objects, be they drawings or sculptures,” he states. “Of course,”
he elaborates, “everything is an object – when I use that word, I mean
that it partakes of the physical world, even by making waves in the air.
Everything I make is unfinished.”
Charles Avery, Nancy aged 3 and El Presidente,
from the series The Life and Lineage of Nancy Haselwon, 1999,
Deutsche Bank Collection
If this sounds a
little alarming, it is. Not because Avery retains the right to enter the
house of every collector of his work and make changes to their purchases
(he doesn’t), but because he wants their imagination to act upon the works
in such a way that one might say that they are never finished, that their
possibilities are endless. It’s an idea that Avery has worked out
obsessively in his work. He creates drawings and installations that are
all characterised by their elaborate fictions. The stories he sets up and
allows to play could almost become soap operas of a sort.
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In The Life and Lineage of Nancy Hasselswon
(1998-99), a series of 30 drawings bound together into a book, he drew a
fictitious dynasty spanning 100 years. “People got born, grew old, and
died. There were clearly dynamics going on – sexual tensions, pathos,
friendships, relationships. Nothing extraordinary happened to the
characters. In terms of their shading and candid expressions, the drawings
were quite photographic, but not photo-realist. They were not out of time,
fairly contemporary. It’s like a photograph album that you might pick up
at random.”
Charles Avery, Untitled,
study for
The Life and Lineage of Nancy Haselwon, 1999,
Deutsche Bank Collection
In The Creation of
the Omniverse (1998), a series of five drawings portray two old men
drinking, a waitress passing by, a spilled drink, and, in the myriad
droplets of the falling beer, an infinite number of universes,
possibilities, ramifications. “The medium I’ve chosen to work in is
drawing,” Avery says. “I am a draughtsman. It’s what I use to realise my
ideas. I’ve always drawn … To proceed as an artist, you have to decide
what is art. I became aware of philosophy through drawing and that made me
start thinking. Drawing is about meaning. Drawing is fundamental – you
don’t need to be able to draw – but drawing is completely explicit. All is
laid bare.” The ability, or more precisely, the opportunity to draw
carries with it clear responsibilities, Avery believes. “If you are an
artist, you have an extraordinary privilege in the world: that of
solitude, which is something few people have. It gives an opportunity for
reverie, an opportunity to think. An artist who is making the same piece
over and over again is abusing that privilege … the buck stops at the
artist.”
Charles Avery, Uncle Eugene's funeral, 1999, Deutsche Bank Collection
Courtesy Doggerfisher, Edinburgh
His recent
exhibition at Edinburgh’s
Doggerfisher Gallery, The Islanders – An Introduction
(2005), treads a playful line between reality and fantasy. The island in
question is (and is not) his home island of Mull off the west coast of
Scotland. Some of its place names are inspired by Scots Gaelic, a language
that is perilously close to extinction even in its former island
strongholds.
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