Drawings & Matches is a series of drawn studies by Manchester-based artist Lee Machell. Synthesizing elements from a practice that incorporates sculpture, installation, and performative elements in a series of works on paper, Drawings & Matches presents Machell’s experiments with matches as a drawing media, as well as pencil studies of the artist’s sculptural work.

Works such as Bag and Kerbstone (2010) are delicate pencil drawings of Machell’s sculptural works. Stripped of their three-dimensional context, Machell depicts the essential formal characteristics of the original works in a two-dimensional space.

In Bag, a brown paper bag leans against a wall, balancing precariously atop a thin wooden pole. Rendered as a drawing on paper, Bag appears to float without a wall for support, defying gravity as it stands alone surrounded by a white mass of paper.

Kerbstone is a sculpture divided by a charred suture of marks, a horizontal line left by the ignition of adjoining matches. As a pencil drawing on paper, Kerbstone is removed from its context as a floor-based sculpture.

Machell’s use of matches to delineate various found objects is a process developed in site-specific works in which the residuum of a line of matches set ablaze creates an ephemeral vestige to a process conditioned by its impermanence. In Drawings & Matches, Machell arranges matches around quotidian, mass-produced objects such as an audio cassette and scales, and construction waste such as a piece of tarmac and eroded concrete. A thunderous riot of sparks on paper results in corpse-like traces, an asymmetric negative space framed by scorched shadows:

Lee Machell studied at the University of Salford, where he received his BA (Hons) Visual Arts in 2005. After graduating, Machell’s first solo exhibition, Workings (2006) took place at the Chapman Gallery, Salford. Machell has exhibited in group exhibitions in France, Italy, and the UK. Scheduled for November 2011 is a residency at 501 Artspace in Chongqing, China.

http://www.untitledgallerymanchester.com/exhibitions/drawingsandmatches.htm