SMOKE DRAWINGS/FUMAGE
Fumage is an ephemeral and ethereal technique of using flame, or the soot from the smoke specifically, to make marks on paper.
Coined by French Surrealists, who explored automatic ways of channeling the unconscious in order to minimize control over image making to yield unexpected and novel results.
Like Rorschach inkblot tests, the process of smoke drawing relies on subjectively extracting imagery out markings made by a capricious candle flame.
These subjective abstractions are further defined by adding pigment and by subtracting and masking the image until it becomes more representative and comprehensible.
The imposed subject matter often speaks to the fugitive quality and unpredictability of
the method.
SMOKE DRAWINGS/FUMAGE
Fumage is an ephemeral and ethereal technique of using flame, or the soot from the smoke specifically, to make marks on paper.
Coined by French Surrealists, who explored automatic ways of channeling the unconscious in order to minimize control over image making to yield unexpected and novel results.
Like Rorschach inkblot tests, the process of smoke drawing relies on subjectively extracting imagery out markings made by a capricious candle flame.
These subjective abstractions are further defined by adding pigment and by subtracting and masking the image until it becomes more representative and comprehensible.