artist: Matthew Monahan
located in: Rijnlands Revalidatie Centrum,
client: Rijnlands Revalidatie Centrum (RRC)

Are they medical analyses of the human body or divine beings? Are they schematic representations of bone systems or nerve paths, or ancient magicians? The drawings that Matthew Monahan made in 2004 for the Rijnlands Rehabilitation Centre in Leiden look like cross-sections of figures that do not immediately reveal what they are. The larger than human figures, with their tenuous, finely-woven constructions, look powerful and superior, but also transparent and vulnerable. This ambiguous quality is typical of the work of the American artist Matthew Monahan, who concentrates mainly on making drawings.

Matthew Monahan
Rijnlands Rehabilitation Centre

photo: Luuk Kramer

Monahan often uses a process whereby a sheet of paper is coated with paint or ink so that it functions as a sort of carbon layer. He then ‘draws’ with a pencil, fork or palette knife onto a large sheet of paper folded around it. Monahan also applied a similarly intuitive way of working in the drawings he made for the Rijnlands Rehabilitation Centre in Leiden. The drawings on both walls of the central corridor represent Monahan’s visual account of the daily activities taking place here. The drawings show physically handicapped children exercising with a ball or training their muscles in the swimming pool. At a distance the visitor perceives an abstract pattern; from close by you can see what this poetically drawn ‘tissue’ is constructed from.