Been catching up on some admin and shameless self-promotion before I go to Holland. Set up a mailing list with Mail chimp, so that will be interesting to see how that works. If you’d like to join my mailing list go here: http://www.claireweetman.co.uk/contact.html or you can find me on twitter @claireweetman
Back to information about Invisible City though: I’m planning on producing a series of work that i’m titling Motus:Immotus – these are based on my experience of producing a drawing I called Static:Moving, whilst I was working in Linz last year with POST (www.postliverpool.com)
I had produced a drawing in the same way as Passing, Watching, Waiting, Following, and was very happy with it. However, the drawing is intended to be about movement, and the results often feel static, with my use of outlined silhouettes pinning down the passage of people rather than documenting their transit. The second drawing that I produced on the day (Static:Moving) featured less heavy working of the surrounding architecture and I decided to focus on only moving my pencil across the paper when the person I could see on my projection moved. So i’m set up with a live feed camera projecting onto the paper and i’ve got my back to the audience/subject.
I found the most interesting part of making this drawing, the part when I wasn’t drawing at all. A few people gathered to watch what I was doing through the window –
My pencil line follows a point on their body.
They stop.
I stop.
They wait for me to do something.
I wait for them to move.
They wait for me.
I wait for them.
With my back to them it felt as though I waited for a good five minutes, but it was probably much less.
I can see them on my projection looking puzzled.
My arm is getting tired waiting for them to move with my pencil poised at the point I stopped.
I want to turn around, but resist.
Eventually they figure that i’m not going to do anything, so they turn away and leave.
My pencil follows them on their journey – they never see this.
I felt that this interaction was closer to what I was trying to achieve than the result in the PWWF drawing and it is that interaction and documentation of movement that I will try to achieve in motus:immotus.
I will do this by using the following processes:
-Only make marks when the subject is moving.
-Select a point on the person’s body and follow that across the image.
-Not concentrate on the background and context of the location
-Consider how I can make the intervention more of an event; there will be lots of performance based work happening at Invisible City, so i’m hoping that’s a positive influence
-Consider how I can use this work in collaboration with the other artists in Schiedam
-Consider the media I use to make the drawings; it might be good to use a more liquid medium and possibly a more absorbent surface to accentuate the difference between points of stillness and passages of movement.
Hmmm, that seems like a useful list to print out and take with me, a sort of reminder of process – that’s probably what i’ll do.
