Jenny Zigzag

Destiny’s Diaries is a body of work based on a suitcase of old diaries found in the outhouse of an otherwise empty property purchased by a friend. As far as she knew the previous occupants had both died leaving no known relatives and the house had been cleared by a house clearance company.

The Relics all started out in life as working ideas and test pieces but I really liked their fragmentary nature and wanted to do something more with them. I cut, tore, stitched, glued and worked them to make twenty different Relics, each 18 x 13 cm, with their roots in marks and traces of the past. 

Memory, loss and the marks we leave behind.

Mrs Poole lived in my house a hundred years ago. Old indentures state merely that the house was “in the occupancy of Mrs Poole” or “formerly in the occupancy of Mrs Poole and now unoccupied.” No first name, no husband, no family, no occupation. Earlier, on an electoral register, Mrs Poole’s name is spelt without the ‘e’, although it is almost certainly the same person; even the spelling of our names gets lost over time.

People die or move on, leaving traces of their lives and labours in a fragment of wallpaper, scratches in paint, hand-made nails or vestiges of ironwork. Meanwhile, the significance of the innumerable, mysterious and very visible symbols carved in old kerb stones all around the area is forgotten.

Memories and marks of the past

Covid-19. Home is a safe place; home is a prison. We’re in this together; we’re in this alone.

Sketches, often in the dark, mostly at music gigs

How others perceive us may be very different to how we see ourselves

The human body is amazing and a challenge to draw. Sue, the life model I’ve been working with, creates really strong sculptural shapes. I’m not so interested in creating a ‘finished painting’ or producing a photo-like image, rather I want to capture the essence, form and structure in my drawings.