Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2016

This article concerns the reflection of the author on his visual practice. The author carried out a piece of work in the medium of drawing-based painting for this purpose. The work is on canvas and was situated in the right angle of two adjoining walls of a studio. The process was recorded visually using stop-motion photography, reference to stills of which are included at the end of the article. The author also spoke his thoughts into a voice recorder while drawing, the transcripts providing, as nearly as possible, subjective reflexive content for the author’s more analytical reflection. Summaries of the transcripts are included in the article as well as some excerpts included as long-form captions alongside photographic images. The article involves questions of the author’s own corporeal embodiment in the drawing, self-performance as a mode of content, and the author’s individual working process as the work’s narrative. Theoretical references are to phenomenology, philosophy of perception and some recent articles concerning research from a practice basis.

Drawing can apprehend and articulate from unexpected edges of the visual field/perceptual world – even as the draughtsman seeks to record ostensibly straightforward observation. Drawing is a sleight-of-hand that registers and interprets through layers of vision – by shifting regard between what is perceived and what is imagined, between the percept and the image. In ordinary perception, the disposition of sight is oriented towards expectation, in a visual regime that reinforces what meets the eye (rather than the ‘I’). Yet the view towards drawing allows for reception of other data: perception that un-enforces to expand or distil apprehension, to allow us to see more, or less, than what meets the eye. Even the established techniques that inform the western traditions of drawing – as an acquired expressive skill – coalesce around specified rules that direct us to alter the pose and project of vision; isolating our look to contour, value, negative spaces and so on. From such discrete and reconfigured repositions in seeing, ‘honest’ representations of observation may become recognized and recorded. But what constitutes a measurement of such honesty of sight? Too often, the strategies of looking for drawing are applied to merely achieve mimicry of expectations of perception. If limited thus, we neglect to ‘see’ how drawing can open onto intervals at the peripheries of vision, onto dormant agents of perception: the subtleties of reflection, the borders of sleep and dreams, the auras and occlusions that flicker across our gaze and our imagination everyday. An observant artist cultivates the ability to withhold aspects of cognition and recognition from perception and – through drawing – purposely and purposefully cultivates a capacity to withhold conclusion based upon preconception. By tracking and recording glimpses into the ephemeral, drawing discloses a fuller account of embodied life.

This article presents a brief report of a first-person investigation through drawing, discussing how serially developed drawing can be understood to express the becoming of now – the present moment in time. By employing a phenomenological approach, the notion that drawing expresses the becoming of now is treated as an assumption, meaning a hypothesis to be tested through practice and theory combined. This occurs as part of my developing research practice, where I look to ‘perform philosophy in a non-philosophical way’ (Emoe 2014). Rather than treat art as an object for philosophy, I use philosophy to question a thought that I, as a practitioner, believe is immanent to drawing as form of art – that drawing itself is a form of becoming, based on the intentionality underpinning the temporal experience of drawing.

I employ a largely Husserlian ([1931] 2012) approach to my research, using the methods of variational practice and ‘bracketing’ to actively suspend my assumptions for the duration of each test. Deploying it here means I stand back from my uncritical ‘lived experience’ of time to establish how phenomenological theory renders the now an aporia, or puzzle, difficult to express in conventional terms. I then use this theory to develop an alternative mode of expression through drawing, developing the now as a rhythm with a fixed temporal duration, which then ‘becomes’ a spatial extension through drawing serially developed lines. In my analysis I seek the invariant understanding – meaning I ask the series what it expresses beyond the individual variation each drawing presents. I emerge from this process better able to articulate how drawing operates, but also with some reservations, leading towards some suggestions for potential development of the research.

This article describes a non-traditional attempt to build a miniature artificial environment that seeks and creates experimental drawings. With microscopic techniques, ink gel was injected into tiny blocks of solid ice in a custom-made chamber. This process allowed us to create some artistic sketches on the inner surface of ice blocks. With our innovative technique we were able to control the ink distribution rate inside the ice blocks, and then we have already recorded ink paths as artistic sketches with microscopic recording processes. The experiment aimed to answer three questions: can we reinterpret the contemporary art of drawing through some contemporary concepts that deal with the art of drawing as an interactive process? How can we examine the effects of the technological aspects and scientific procedures on the interactive processes in contemporary experimental drawings? To what extent can this experiment contribute to redefine a key standard in twentyfirst century aesthetics? This case study hopes to enhance our understanding of the conceptual content of some contemporary experimental drawings, not only technically, but also by linking our results to leading artworks that have already had considerable impact on a wide range of artistic trends.

Contemporary graffiti artists, or ‘writers’ as they are known, observe a strict hierarchy that self-ranks ambition, daring and calligraphic innovation. At the apex are those writers who create the imposing wildstyle exhibition pieces, large-scale vivid inscriptions that require a high degree of graphic invention and daring. At the other extreme are the stencil-cutters, who by comparison are regarded within the peer community of the subculture, as lesser writers, relying on craft skills that are held to be quaint, even fraudulent. This article explores the persistence and ubiquitous spread of the stencil as a vehicle for mass-produced street art, made especially popular through the iconic work of British street-artist Banksy. Exploring the origins of his work in stencil the article examines how he has both radicalized the genre, while still retaining its essential value as an industrial, utilitarian and iconic graphic. The article compares the deadpan, but hugely popular, drawn language of the stencil with the freehand calligraphy of the taggers, ‘kings’ and other exhibition ‘writers’, and closes with a set of questions, in particular: what is the future of drawing in countercultural expression?

Not seeing things might seem a surprise in the visual arts, yet it happens all the time. This article brings attention to some ignored items under our noses – food leftovers – and suggests a context and perspective as to why they are well worth our undivided consideration.

From March to November 2015, artist Gemma Anderson hosts the Cornwall Morphology and Drawing Centre (CMADC) at the Cornubian Arts and Science Trust (CAST), Helston, Cornwall. The aim of CMADC is to use drawing as the primary mode of investigation to learn about morphology, the study of form in nature. Through a series of drawing workshops, Anderson and her scientific collaborators identify and address questions that concern both scientific and artistic practice. This text focuses on the second workshop, in which mathematician Professor Alessio Corti worked in collaboration with Anderson to explore ‘Drawing in the Fourth Spatial Dimension’.

The Drawn Word, Stephen Farthing and Janet McKenzie (eds) (2014) New York/London: Studio International and The Studio Trust, NY, 128 pp., ISBN: 9780983259954, pbk, £20.00

Draw to Perform2 symposium, NUM3ER London, 16–17 May 2015