Tandem I & II


Two of Jules’ ice-process drawings, Tandem I & II (2021), were exhibited during COP-26.  Jules started working with natural inks and pigments over lockdown and developed a unique way of working with the inks, freezing them to preserve vibrancy, and creating ice-process drawings using different substrates.  Jules sets up the work and then facilitates the process by making sure that the inks stay on the page during the melting stage.  Through her practice-based research, Jules noted differences in outcomes depending on the room temperature when the ice was melting.  One cold winter night, her heating broke and Jules seized this opportunity to create two works simultaneously using exactly the same materials in identical cold conditions.  Jules makes all her inks and pigments herself and, in this work, she used oak gall and sycamore inks, the former created using the same recipe Shakespeare used for his manuscripts.  The subtlety of difference between the works is the research outcome which was on view.  Regarding lightfastness, using inks made and frozen in autumn 2020, the works were created during winter 2021 and stored with no exposure to light or oxygen.  As they were on display with no UV protection, they will fade over time and the viewer will experience the changing of the seasons, from autumn to winter, as the warm brown tones evolve.  Jules chose to exhibit this diptych for HEART of Nature to highlight the resounding rhythm of change, ever-present in nature.