Uncertain Grounds

Amy Simons describes her drawing practice as a deep exploration of darkness and emergence. She explains, "My drawing practice involves darkening paper with charcoal and 'scrying', a process of deep looking into the surface." Simons emphasises the intentional adjustment of sight to engage in a kind of "looking in the dark", allowing her to attune to the subtle mark-making within the charcoal surface. In her own words, she shares, "I stay with the space before form, the dark surface, for as long as is needed before the images start to take shape." This process is akin to an archaeological dig, as she unearths and delves into the charcoal-filled paper, revealing what feelings, memories, thoughts or imaginal thoughts lie concealed beneath the surface. 

Simons finds significance in staying with uncertainty, with the unknown, and with formlessness throughout her artistic journey. By repetitively filling the paper with marks using charcoal, she creates a dark and potent ground full of potential forms. Simons believes that gazing into this ground teaches us to see in the dark and navigate uncertainty, anticipating the emergence of new and unexpected elements, a way of honing the intuition, not unlike the ancient sage or occult practice of ‘scrying’, where seers could look into tea leaves, or the space within a crystal, to see beyond thought and into feeling.