‘Distant touch'
2020, graphite on paper, 150 x 150 cm
This work was created on Gadigal land (Warrang/Sydney) during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. It documents the tape crosses placed on the ground by business owners to aid with social distancing. In a time when people were avoiding touching each other these markers became a poetic form of extended touch – one person places the cross, and others stand upon it.
Odlum created rubbings of the crosses using only what was in the studio at the start of the lockdown. Failed or half-finished drawings were superimposed with crosses, becoming traces of touch in an uncertain time.
Each drawing is 30 cm x 30cm. Entire configuration is 150 x 150 cm.
Following the 2021 lockdown in Sydney, Odlum turned these drawings into a limited edition artists book, with an accompanying essay.
