Division, 2019

Tenesh Webber’s work occupies a space between drawing, sculpture, and photography in process, linear quality, and composition. For more than twenty years she has been working in abstract black-and-white photography. She creates photograms (cameraless photographic prints) by making sculptural objects out of thread and found objects in the studio. These sculptural objects are then printed in an off-site darkroom, where she employs experimental photography techniques such as movement during the exposure time, and solarization, to create series of unique images.

The drawings represent a new body of work for Webber, one that was inspired by many years of composing her black-and-white photographs but that has now developed its own language. She considers these drawings now to be an integral part of her studio practice. As she has had no formal training in drawing, her extensive experimentation with the media has led to the development of her own techniques. These include the use of found templates, layering, erasing, and smudging the pencil marks to, in effect, replicate the photographic light and forms in the photograms. An extension of the photographic and drawing work are Webber’s recent silkscreen prints, where she selects her photographic imagery as a starting point for multilayered prints, which has allowed her to continue her abstract explorations further into color and layering.

Image on website: Between 8 and 9 #5, 2021