Zahra Hoccom
Zahra Hoccom is a multi-faceted artist, whose practices encompass drawing, printmaking and photography. Hoccom’s portfolio compromises of intricate line drawings, double exposure photography, featuring veiled subjects, as well as dark ghost-like photoetchings. Hoccom’s recent body of work ‘The Veil Series’ was produced from research into death in art, it’s authenticity and the philosophy behind being aware of our own finitude.
‘The Veil Series’ connects the handmade process of photoetching alongside the digital outcomes from the double exposure photography Hoccom has taken. What you are left with are veiled subjects, whose presence is overlapped, thereof by capturing the juxtaposition between absence and presence.
Zahra grew up in Somerset and studied BA Drawing at Falmouth University. Drawing continues to be her core practice, where she loves to produce detailed contour and stippling works.
Works
The Veil Series
When exploring the concept of finitude I realised that the distortion of the face in portraiture visually represented absence. Using the medium of photography, I distorted my subjects by combining double exposure and having my models wear a Veil. This added another layer of conceptual meaning to my work, as the Veil has a multi-faceted symbolism; religiously and politically within historical and current cultures. This technique means that the subject does not seem to be fully present, which plays to the dichotomy within absence and presence. Following the use of photographs as a starting point, I felt it would be appropriate to push the process further into photoetching, which enabled the digital process to be recycled into a handmade process.
Drawing
Drawing has always been my core practice and the medium I revisit. I find my drawings incorporate detailed lines or marks. Exploring and combining contour lines, stippling and portraiture. In the past year, they have moved to a more illustrational approach. I gain inspiration from current political affairs and my surroundings.