Telephone

I have continued the large-scale drawings on glued tracing paper series, and am quite happy with this one- a hovering telephone receiver. It's similar to an earlier drawing, almost a year ago, but it seems to have so much more presence when it is several times larger than life size.

After drawing this, I had a sudden memory of childhood fears and imaginations of anxiety- about strange creatures and mechanical devices that would creep out of dark places: door knobs, buttons and switches that had eyes, etc. It's amazing what strange human qualities these forms have, and how that relates to a sense of the uncanny, automata, and the disembodied voice.

One other change I made is the use of Elmer's glue instead of rice paste. It caused more puckering, and I hope it will start to age and yellow. I'm also pondering a way to walk through them, perhaps involving projection of drawings and animation.

What's next? Perhaps a phonograph horn or speaker, or close up of a phone receiver mouth piece. Disconnected wires seem to be integral as well. Hmmm.