An exhibition of recent drawings at the i:cat gallery, Vientiane, Laos
These works are not landscapes in the traditional sense. They are evocations rather than depictions, spaces sensed rather than seen that reference the past histories and possible futures of a place. Charcoal and graphite – materials that smudge, blur, and layer – become perfect instruments for exploring these merging and overlapping moments.
Bunce works rhythmically, sometimes slowly and thoughtfully, at other times in fast bursts. He allows thought and instinct to alternate, to collide. Each mark acts as both gesture and reflection – thinking and not thinking, allowing the uncertain terrain of memory and imagination to lead.
At the heart of this exhibition lies a tension between presence and absence, between where we are and where we long to be. Time gathers in the drawings like mist – layers of charcoal or graphite recalling the layered experience of living between two cultures, of missing one place while inhabiting another. In this way, he reimagines what home is and what it could be – illustrating the longing for a future home that will make our present moment beautiful and whole, without forgetting the scars of our past.
Home is where I want to be… invites viewers to immerse themselves in these imagined places and dwell in the ‘thin space’ between worlds – where the tangible and the imagined co-exist, and where art becomes an act of bringing into being a semblance of a longed for home that does not yet exist, yet somehow feels deeply familiar.
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