Collective Sigh – Shannon Williamson

Shannon Williamson’s latest exhibition Collective Sigh navigates spaces of anxiety in this year of bated breath. Comprised of three bodies of work – Damocles, Collective Sigh and a selection of studies in human touch – the show explores layers of corporeal and social discomfort, mapping the pulse of the artist’s mind as it traces the gnarly twists of new global and personal terrains.

Through a mixture of both rhythmic and chaotic pencil marks on paper Williamson creates a collection of abstract drawings, at times more akin to
sheet music than her typical cartographic and anatomical style. In the Damocles and Collective Sigh bodies of works, ellipses, concentric circles, shadowy imprints, arcs and bone-like shapes carry associations to the physical body. maps out the personal and collective bodily experiences encountered during the difficult periods of this year. At times chaotic, at times sparse, Williamson’s works create tension through dense and negative space reflective of breathing. ‘It’s that
build-up and release from the positive and negative of the experiences we’re going through.’

In her Touch study and Touch Topography works Williamson responds to the volume between bodies, mapping the negative space and touch of bodies through cartographic lines and shading. The organic lines present across her work give a softness, grounding us in the human experience where movement, breath, touch and distance have taken on a new weight. ‘Everything that comes between the bodies is a landscape but you don’t know where it is.’