TRACEY - Drawing Research.

A selection of questions from the Tracey Journal with my answers:

How is drawing as an experimental approach and attitude distinct from drawing as an outcome and discipline?

Drawing as an experimental approach and attitude is something I have begun to explore in depth recently. Allowing mark making and chance to dictate the pace and feeling in my drawing makes for interesting outcomes. By fully following through and committing to chance my drawing has advanced and become a vehicle for ideas. 

Drawing for an outcome or as a discipline becomes problematic when trying to work with the notion of chance. Having a pre-formed idea about a final outcome prohibits experimentation. 

In what way is it used as an analytic tool?

Drawing is an analytic tool in that it allows me to make a clear 'map' of the fabrics I am projecting through. I am able to criticise structures and make decisions regarding mark making. 

What is interesting or unusual about your own working processes?

What is unusual about my working processes is that my main specialism (knit) has now become a thinking tool and research process. In this I am now able to create pieces that 'speak' as loudly as I had hoped was possible in knitted samples. An interesting point is that knitting doesn't lead directly to drawing and mark making. 

Elijah Walton

Elijah Walton, 1867, Monte Marmorolo, Italy.

		This painting stood out for me on a recent trip to Birmingham Art gallery and Museum, firstly the sheer scale of the painting (2270mm high x 3220mm wide) is striking. Secondly, the mountains and the lake compared to the people in the boat gives an impression of just how large the subject matter is. Painting on this scale always intrigues me, was it painted on location? Was it drawn in mapped out squares or freehand?

Image available at <http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1885P2600>

Sky

After the flood

These images are a selection from one of the most moving books I have ever come across. They are all taken by photographer Robert Polidori, once most of the water had subsided following hurricane Katrina.

Images featured in the book After the flood:

Rosenheim, J. (2006) After the flood. London: Steidl

Stefan Emmelmann

Movement, 2008

Frank Pudney

People,  2011
Pencil on gesso board
127 cm x 82 cm

Pudney's artists statement sums up in a concise and eloquent way something I have been trying to convey myself.  His use of the words and phrases 'witness', 'force greater than ourselves' and 'appreciate our insignificance' are key concepts which I'm currently exploring, but responding to in a different way.

"People is the first of a growing sequence of drawings and paintings depicting crowds in a
moment of shared experience. Witnessing an event or force greater than ourselves, we are open
to appreciate our insignificance, despite our great and ever increasing number. Showing both
the comfort and safety felt in unity the image also suggests our alienation from one another, our
vulnerability and singularity.
The viewer is invited to become ‘lost’ in the texture and pattern of the image, despite the human
subject matter, challenging how we are able to view ourselves: as one, or as many"

Available at: <http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/page/3158/Jerwood+Drawing+Prize> [Accessed 16/11/2011]

Mark Lawrence

Untitled 1, 2010
Ink on discarded etching newsprint
62 cm x 46.5 cm

Mark Lawrence works with chance, he found this piece of discarded etching newsprint in the studio and responded to the marks already made on it. This enables him to complete works which would have been unlikely if left to his own devices.

Featured in the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011

Available at: <http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/page/3158/Jerwood+Drawing+Prize> [Accessed 16/11/2011]

Jessica Killeen & Sam Taylor

Jessica Killeen & Samuel Taylor, 'Interventional Drawing' (Graphite and Wax), 2011

Part of the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011, Killeen and Taylor explore what it is to make a collaborative drawing.

This type of drawing appeals to me in that they influence what the other draws, by moving or staying in one position. This effects what the other person can mark as the space between them.

Available at: <http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/page/3158/Jerwood+Drawing+Prize> [Accessed 16/11/2011]

Andrew Vass

Andrew Vass taught the drawing module at college when I studied for a BTEC in Art and design. The way in which he makes marks is fascinating and they seem to have no obvious origin.

 just like that, 2011, charcoal, 57 x 75cm

Available at: <http://a-vass.co.uk/index.php?/project/open-studio-drawings/> [Accessed 16/11/2011]

Ingrid Calame

Ingrid Calame: L.A. River at Clearwater Street, 2006–8

Ingrid Calame: L.A. River at Clearwater Street, 2006–8 (detail)

This tracing of the L.A. River was translated directly onto the Fruitmarket Gallery wall using the 'pouncing' technique. The original tracing was traced onto what Calame called 'butchers paper' and holes were pricked through, coloured pounce was pushed through the holes and the paper removed. Working in this way has left a ghost of the original and the scale is considerable.

Elana Herzog

Untitled 2, 2001
Cotton chenille bedspread, metal staples, drywall, plywood
91.5 x 84 inches

Detail

Elana Herzog uses thousands of staples to secure fabrics to gallery walls, to then tear the fabric away. Chance is a huge factor here as there is no indication which parts of the fabric will give way or hang on.

Herzog, E. (2010) Available at: http://www.elanaherzog.com [Accessed 5^th November 2011]

Swell

Cabinet

Work in progress, October 2011.

Film stills

00:00:03:10

00:00:03:13

00:00:03:16

00:00:03:20

00:00:04:06

00:00:04:15

of that moment

Melancholia

This film was unlike anything I had seen before; none of the characters were introduced, their emotional problems unnamed. I spent almost the entire film wondering what was going on, only to be ambushed by overwhelming feeling in the closing scenes. 

I struggled with the concept of this planet, Melancholia, flying by the Earth. It all became very real towards the end, when the terror displayed was so real I began to feel it too. 

There were two or three strong ways featured in the film of dealing with this impending catastrophe, the first being to avoid it completely. The second, with complete calm. The third, sheer terror.

I can only describe what I saw and it is a very different position to witness. 

The actress Charlotte Gainsbourg managed to summon terror as if the planet was actually going to crash into our own, when really all she had to accompany her were computer graphics, which no doubt were added afterwards. I can only wonder how she conjured such emotion within herself to make it all so convinving, playing the part of witness amazingly.

Approaching catastrophe is brave and I left the cinema awe struck. 

A review at the Guardian, much different to my own. This is so due to my viewing of the film to see how catastrophe was approached.

Guardian film review

Relinquishing control

Spending hours on a sketchbook, only to throw it in the sea seems like a catastrophic idea to almost anyone.
I spent as long as I would on each page as if it was to be preserved forever, releasing myself from the burden of control by surrendering it to powers greater than myself (the sea)
I feel no preciousness towards my work and throwing it away is almost a relief. 
My sketchbook is now swollen with sea water, bogged down with sand and has been ripped in half, the cover peeling away. But now, I feel a stronger attachment for it than I ever have towards something I've made.
Drying it over the course of a few days, deciding how to display it, as part of this on-going process has become exciting.

Causing rage.

A response to one of my posts on tumblr, where I document all knitting and drawing.
This is exactly what I wanted to create; a reaction. Any reaction.

Rena, New Zealand. Video

Video showing the ship listing heavily, 6 days ago.

Love the way this has been shot, feels like I'm at sea witnessing the catastrophy first hand. I wonder how long it will take for the containers to wash up?

Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJbK0qhiav0> [Accessed 21 October 2011]

Rena, New Zealand. Update.

Copyright Bob Zuur/WWF

Available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/oct/20/new-zealand-oil-clean-up-wwf?INTCMP=SRCH#/?picture=380673577&index=7> [Accessed 21 October 2011]

Cloudy