MARTIN BRIEF
Documents of Freedom
ink and abrasion on paper, 11” x 15”, 2020
ink and abrasion on paper, 11” x 15”,
2020
These four works employ drawing and erasing as a response to the current political and cultural climate in America. Each one began as a transcription of one of the United States’ founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and Amendments XI–XXVII. After completing each drawing I erased them, one letter at a time, by scratching and scraping the surface of the paper with an X-acto knife. Transcription and erasure are both meditative practices; the former, an act of veneration, the latter, a corrective. At its most basic level erasure is a way to eliminate a mistake. It can also be destructive, meant to remove something objectionable or an obstruction. In either case this process of removal creates a clearing a space for something new to be imagined.
