Soft Pressing is an exhibition which investigates and encourages an interaction with surfaces that make up our everyday environments. Through a process pressing paper to walls, footpaths or other surfaces and then rubbing graphite or charcoal, artist Simon Degroot has used ‘frottage’ to record specific places and times.
Once each surface is recorded, Degroot has returned the rubbings to his studio, provoking further layers of drawing and printed interventions. Working with the imprinted surface of a building or other textured structure in the built environment is an active way to promote agency and empower individual connection to surrounding environments.
Image: Simon Degroot, Field Notes Yellow, 2024, graphite and ink on Wenzhou rice paper, 95cm x 68cm.
