Tracy Luff

20 February - 26 March      Passing Through    

Link to artist's website

The first thing that Tracy Luff said to me about her work, Passing Through was that it had “ totally changed direction from what it was going to be ” Then after spending 5 days in my studio working on the piece as a flat object she spent another day turning it into the cylinder that is displayed in SLOT. 

Perhaps unintentionally she has illustrated one of the truisms of art making – that art lies in the making of an object not the preconceptions brought to its inception. Art is an inquiry. An inquiry into the self, into the materials that the work is made of, into events that shape our thinking, but above all it is 

simply an inquiry into our thinking. And in this case the artist, Tracy Luff was thinking about Covid 19.

It’s hard to escape the buzzwords of Covid neatly printed on shapes that are woven into the fabric of thepiece. In Tracy’s eyes they introduce an idea of domestic life. They alert the work as our lives have been alerted to the need for vigilance against the threat of Covid. And they are in the shape of feet because Covid has come and will go. In Tracy’s reckoning it will disappear. She continues – “ the piece is for fun, playing with the words and how they match up but they are serious words – the fun didn’t continue and it gets more serious – every action connects with what is happening ”

Watching Tracy’s daily work offered an insight into her art making. The fun of the Covid buzzwords was forgotten as thoughtfully connecting forms and voids, articulated in threaded cardboard discs replaced them as the subject of the work. Irrespective of any tangible meaning that may be attached to the work it is as Tracy commented “ the process of making the work leads to the form it takes ” and further “ the form is dictated by what the material can and can’t do ” Or as the mid 20th century Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan put it  – “ the medium is the message.” 

And it could be that the reasoned beauty of Tracy’s artwork supplants any message it may carry about the presence or absence of Covid 19 in our community or thinking.

Tony Twigg