Fiona Banner

Drawing with words - a descriptive approach to seeing and recording

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a British artist who explores language, sexuality, film representation and culture through forms such as language, photography, sculpture and performance. She often uses writing as a descriptive drawing process, whether it's about a nude model or a film scene, utilising words instead of mark or image making to communicate an image or experience. She also does Performance Nude's which have invited the audience to view the making of the written piece, observing an alternative way of creating a nude which is less about socially constructed sexual ideals of women and more about the artists physical view and description of it. She also creates works she calls 'wordscapes' such as Break Point:

Break Point 1998

Break Point is a large painted text description of a scene from the film of the same name involving sixty six rows of red text on a white background, with the text becoming smaller as it progresses down the piece. Similar to Banners Nude's, this effect suggests a running out of space or getting tired of writing, the text becoming more crammed in as the piece comes to a close. The huge expanse of the writing also makes it difficult for the reader to follow and the narrative is incomplete, fractured and obscure. Similar to my overheard conversations, characters, places, times are not known, adding anonymity and curiosity to the context of the language. This leads the narrative up for interpretation.

Nude Standing 2006

"you have this very alluring image/text, very hard-core at times, so the viewer wants to read it but is embarrassed to read it. This is what I’m dealing with - something about the way sex is everywhere, behind everything, but never really overt until it is utterly overt in porn."

(See Vogue)

Left Nude Beam 2007

Right Standing Nude 2008

Comparing uniform, stenciled pieces such as Break Point compared to imperfect, hand written pieces such as Standing Nude.... How do these communicate differently?

It is interesting to observe that Banner's Nude's are hand written and imperfectly fitted within the space, with areas of more prominent text than others, some lines running over etc. To me, this appears as a more organic, unplanned process of 'drawing'. However, her Wordscapes such as Break Point and Car Chases (Below) involve neatly stencilled horizontal text, becoming crammed near the end similarly to nude, but in a uniform manor. These works are planned, less spontaneous, a more superficial representation of Banner's observations, but just as powerful.

Black Hawk Down 2010 Wall drawing

Not all of Banner's writings based on film scenes are made in this way however, Black Hawk Down is a wall piece similar to her nudes, written in scribbled and organic handwriting. Personally, I relate more with these pieces because of the way they fill the space more freely and reflective of the artists gestures.