Sacha Lehrfreund

From The Elephants @Sacha Lehrfreund 14.3.2022

The Elephants’ is a long-term project about love and loss, using time-lapse films of two ancient trees, combined with audio and drawings. This is the fourth year of the project and it has required determination, stamina and support to keep making this work.

Drawing is not usually a part of my art practice but I wanted to add a raw emotional juxtaposition to the photography which is restrained. I started drawing the trees this year, every few days, always from the same position, mostly in black and white.

On paper, the scene is sparse and intimate – it has been reduced to the two trees with a Church spire between them and a cross branch joining them together. The feel of charcoal on paper, and the mess it leaves behind as it breaks under the pressure of creating the line taps into the emotion underlying the work.

This is drawing 36 of 95.