I worked in the mediums of watercolour, ink and pencil on paper and tracing paper to build up my layered drawing. As this is the first time encountering this technique called palimpsest, I researched artists Doris Salcedo, Idris Khan and Julie Mehretu’s work. I discovered palimpsest was originally used for writings and texts, and I realised that this was a way of communicating by layering evidence and history on top of one another. This was a good method for documenting the Sir John Soane’s museum as this site visit had a multitude of historical facets to the interior space and the collections.
I found experimenting with palimpsest took me on a journey throughout Sir John Soane’s collections and how he has arranged them in his rooms and also how he has positioned his interior spaces, openings and windows. It allowed me to investigate further the layering he has developed in his spaces and observe his space as more of a gallery of pieces beneath and on top of each other rather than one entity of a room.
I would like to take this technique with me on my journey on how to observe and design a space. It would be a great opportunity to layer materials, shapes, forms, views of the space and think about how the interior can open up to potential perspectives or possibly exterior views and control the intent of this.