David Manley

Examples of work from The Sculpture School of Drawing

David Manley

For the work shown in this exhibition David Manley has translated the textural quality of three-dimensional sculptures into two-dimensional drawings. His drawings are from a series he is producing called The Sculpture School of Drawing.

The inspiration for this series are the invisible lines inherent in three-dimensional objects. This refers to lines in space i.e. all those lines at the back of an object one would see if the object were transparent. But it also refers to time-lines; those times involved in making art, and the experiences lived that are inferred by the presentation of this art. When the viewer looks at a work of art they are instinctively aware of the time that it has taken the artist to make the work.

Much of his earlier work has been sculpture, and this informs his interest in texture. Influences on his work are science fiction imagery and oriental writing, which he experiences synaesthetically. It appears to him as a three-dimensional, pictorial object as opposed to western alphabets, which he thinks of as flat and without structure.

Everyone is the sum of their parts. David’s disability and his artwork are inextricably linked, ‘I have always been able to draw, and so it has become a way of communicating for me when my disability and dyslexia have made it difficult to communicate in other ways.’ He finds his voice and expression in his artwork.