starting with a bang, a scratch, a mark and score. Been having constant ideas and things swirling around my head like a never ending washing machine. washing my head and thoughts around and around, filtering out the in between and ideas I won't see through to fruition.
seeing as being - the eye.
First two classes got me thinking of the role of observation and seeing myself and others and what data strikes me our jumps out at me. This word "data" has been embedded in my mind for a while now, and I can se it. A collection of marks, drawings and dreams.
loving the word collection a lot lately too. Wanting to lean more into my writing and use it as a conduit for my visual perception and allowing for the start of something. like a prompt. Friday had us as the viewer but also the model, i quite liked the change of being the watcher to being the watched. For the duration of the song we chose that was how long we posed for. Frozen for that moment in time, holding lyrics or a beat to my head to stay focused. The pace we worked at was a challenge too but I enjoyed the race of getting the data down onto paper whatever shape or form that took. One thing I have noticed is that I tend to use line as my means of documentation. I'd like to focus more on the inside of a drawing. Thinking back to life drawing on Tuesday and Alex's comment about working within and across the drawing. I noticed that i have a tendency to linger on the edges or scatter around areas and never really pushing myself inwards.
Decided to challenge myself with this task in Wednesday's class. mark making and having fun. We were challenged to focus on the marks we were making and the materials we used while also thinking of ownership of a piece of work once instructed to steal or borrow a piece of someones drawings to then make part of our own. like one big collaboration. Some of the work I produced I wasn't too keen on, which was sort of the point, not to take it too seriously and treat it like it's super precious. I enjoyed this collaborative journey of borrowing each others work and in turn making something new from that. I think everyone found it a challenge as we had just me on another a few days prior and to begin stealing or changing each others work was a challenge. My rules were thrown out the window in this exercise, my precision obliterated and I let the hunger for marks and the moment overcome me. I was learning. Taking on Elaines techniques with mesh to create texture, taking on Callums' approach to drawing with resistant materials which sparked a curiosity in the unseen drawing and what wax would offer in terms of tactility and drawing. Batik work? Printing lingers. Patterns are arising within my practice, I can't ignore them much longer, i'm seeking out repetition which is usually something I'd stray away from. The clean cut line that l love has now become a sequence or collection of them. Creating form, building on my life drawing approach.
Rebecca Glover, Paper Mountain, 2012.
within the exercise there was something in me that wanted to develop the drawings into sculpture. I enjoy the idea of paper being used as sculpture, thinking of Karla Black, Rebecca Glover and Do ho Suh and their use of paper to sculpt. in particular, Glovers environment building, the paper is drawing and her bending, crushing and scrunching the paper to look like mountain terrain is a form of drawing. Traces of touch.
Do Ho Suh: "Rubbing / Loving" | Art21 "Extended Play"
Dreamy work by Ho Suh, love the idea of physically capturing the space through tracings or rubbings of surfaces.
Drawing as sculpture and vice versa has been something I've embraced more and more as the weeks pass. Looking back at my degree show, that was just the beginning for me. I was timid, i think.. I can look back on it and see where I'd change things or develop them. that body of work is still relevant but there has been a shift in my opinion of it and the way I displayed it. Colour. simplicity. Down the rabbit hole of Beuys, Emins and Mehretu's work. It's been fascinating. line remains a constant in their practice and I enjoy the myriad of ways it's communicated on the page. For me, the figure has always been a battle, life drawing aside as that practice to me, is one of it's own - it's still important and attached to my practice but it's not what I want to explore. at least at the moment. I have this idea to conflate, figures and environments together but haven't been able to capture what I want from this. Is it because the body is fun to draw? or is it the latter? Is it to do with insecurities? comfortability? I'm beginning to acknowledge what I like and don't. it's been hard to admit that. i like when other people draw the body, but not when i do. at times. it's pushing and pulling me.
Through the first few weeks of Grounding and rules of drawing, I have unpacked, unlearnt, relearnt, adapted and been inspired by my practice and others. it's been hard to keep the stamina going from 4th year til now, not that I regret the choice. I think i've allowed myself to keep that 4th year head on, the fast paced work environment, the deadlines. it's all gone now and I feel more relaxed and myself.
My module plan has helped situate myself, especially after my tutorial with Tania and the artists she recommended me. I've been soaking all the information and drawings up these past few days especially, Nidhal Chamekhs'
Gosia Wlodarczak | A Room Without A View (Extended)
THIS. I'm a huge admirer of Wlodarczak, I remember saving a photo of her work from a Vitamin D2 book back in 2019, but couldn't find it until recently when i checked the book out at the library and then searched through my photos and found it again. It's her use of the peripheral, something I find intriguing. As someone with glasses, the peripheral is blocked by a metal barrier of frame. Another element to seeing. these metal frames and glass lenses help me visualise the world more clearly and intricately. Using my peripheral vision has been something I've adopted lately. Catching textures, shapes and subjects through a mirror and my side vision has nurtured a new approach to my practice. This has only been amplified by Wlodarczak and her use of drawing on various surfaces. From tables, chairs, walls and glass. Her use of unravelling lines through something quite controlled like a marker pen has allowed her to create a sense of energy and capture a space and those within it quite fluidly. I'm intrigued by the aftermath of energy. The outline of someone moving, or after they've moved. That trace in time left suspended in the universe.
Referring back to the exercise in rules of drawing, collage remains in the memory. What would happen if I rearrange my work through cutting it up and putting it back together like a puzzle. Joseph Beuys piece, Plate 88. Staghunt, 1961 has me thinking of the immersion of collage within my drawing - it's been something I've not considered for an odd reason. I often have this feeling of combining drawings but take that in a literal sense of drawing on top of one another. But collage whether it's directly placing the drawing on top of another one gives a sculptural quality to the drawings, like a book or plate.
Working at the Cooper Gallery this semester, having more time to sit with the exhibition by Lucy Skaer and Rosalind Nashashibi. Been thinking of the little drawings of hooves and hands on the side of the sculptures upstairs, like the little surprise of a beautiful drawing hidden in plain sight. something to think about in my own practice.