Diana Thorneycroft: Carnival of Tails, Tongues and Other Protrusions

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Diana Thorneycroft, “Tongue Exchange,” 2018

colour pencil crayon on paper, 11” x 10"

Diana Thorneycroft: Carnival of Tails, Tongues and Other Protrusions

For much of my life as an artist, prior to making a work of art, I would spend a lot of time gathering and preparing source materials, such as setting up a still-life to draw, or constructing a complex set to photograph. For my drawings, I felt compelled to have something in front of me to replicate as I didn’t believe I was capable of drawing strictly from my imagination. Early attempts to do so failed and I had no reason to think things had changed. 

Until they did. 

Several years ago, by chance, I was given a small 3 x 4" gessoed masonite panel to use as I wish. As there weren’t any parameters involved, I felt no pressure to “perform”. I casually drew a series of weird figures within an even weirder landscape. It was fun and easy and not very good, but it made me think I could create more imagery in this vein. 

The next time I used an 8x10" sketch pad. The process was the same; look at the blank page and draw whatever comes to mind. Once I opened that flood gate, I couldn't stop, and have, over the past few years, completed dozens of graphite and pencil crayon drawings. The sizes range from 8 x 8" to 17 x 11", remaining relatively small as I enjoy the intimacy of these dimensions. 

Looking back at the figurative element in these drawings, I am reminded of Hieronymous Bosch, and how the scrawny looking figures in his paintings are similar in appearance. I realize I too have subconsciously developed a drawing style: a vocabulary of forms, pattern and colours, as well as variations of human, animal and imaginary anatomical structures and gestures. 

Thematically, there are motifs that reoccur, such as mutant creatures with animal parts, hooves, tails and claws, penetrating tongues, tornadoes and complex root systems, scales, teeth and more tongues. For quite some time now, tongues have played a critical role in my work. I see them (using a quote from the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin), as the site where "the body goes outside to meet the world". In my drawings, open mouths and articulated tongues allow for a multiplicity of meanings, ranging from vulnerability to protection and aggression. For example, the “Consensual Transmission Fluid” series revolves around the transfer of fluids via tongues, tubes or air borne droplets. 

As my drawings are representational, there is the chance a story is involved.

Occasionally the narrative is obvious, but more frequently it's implied, allowing the audience a greater role as interpreter. Composing titles for the work has become particularly enjoyable, as it's an opportunity for me to nudge a reading in a certain direction and has become as playful as it is beguiling. Titles suggest I knew what I was going to draw before-hand, which is never the case.

Diana Thorneycroft

Diana Thorneycroft is a Winnipeg artist who has exhibited various bodies of work across Canada, the United States and Europe, as well as in Moscow, Tokyo and Sydney. She is the recipient of numerous awards including an Assistance to Visual Arts Long-term Grant from the Canada Council, several Senior Arts Grants from the Manitoba Arts Council and a Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Her work has been the subject of national radio documentaries and a CBC national documentary for television. Thorneycroft's photo-based exhibition, The Body, its lesson and camouflage was on an eight city tour from 2000 to 2002. A book by the same name was published.

Thorneycroft's work has been included in the 2002 released Phaidon Press publication Blink, which presents the work of 100 rising stars in photography. They have been selected by 10 world-class curators, each proposing 10 photographers who they consider to have emerged and broken new ground in the last five years.

Canadian Art Magazine selected Thorneycroft's most recent body of work "Group of Seven Awkward Moments" as one of The Top 10 Exhibitions of 2008.