Drawing as a forum for collaborative exchange

Richard:

We have reached a point where actual physical exhibition is in fact to be reality. After popping down to meet Ross at Superclub in Edinburgh (and battling through the festival crowds on The Royal Mile), and after attempting to call in Ross on Skype to show him the space there, we are now booked in for a three-week exhibition beginning October 28th. Now we have a new focus and new works are beginning to formulate, as well as new curatorial incisions in to how my work will go next to Ross’s (or underneath, on top of, or leading too).

Another set of photographs then just for now. And also a chance to publish some of our ideas in the upcoming issue of Drawing Paper (based in Liverpool and distributed UK-wide), Drawing Paper 4 will be published in time for the Jerwood Drawing prize: both Ross and me have submitted a collaborative piece that is representative of how one artist’s work frames that of the other, or crosses over that of the other.

Ross, these other images are recent studio ‘conference images’, collaging drawing in process with set displays of found and used objects. The two images look in to and borrow slices of each other, much like our creative process. I am wondering how these images might make an appearance, or whether they are perhaps just strange capsules or reference points for me to expand on when the time comes to build and install. Its as if they’re zip files for eventual floor-based works.

Richard:

I have decided to throw myself a little further along this thought path before my laptop beds down for the night. I had forgotten what Ross sounded like; we have just had out first Skype conversation about a possible exhibition/outing for our project. Two strands of thought rang truer than others. One of which being Ross’s idea to produce a wall drawing in the gallery, the wall drawing would act as a piece of work in its own right, depending on the amount of time we have to install the exhibition, and it would also be a framing mechanism for a series of my own drawings on paper – themselves unframed and instead simply mounted on to the wall. The ‘working’ together would come from a direct conference between Ross and me: a forwarding of pattern arrived at through his drawing process and the more figurative embellishments of my own drawing process.

The second strand of thought that we both chimed upon, is that of setting out Ross’s other framed drawings – themselves being larger in scale than my own pencilled arrangements – in and around and upon the collective objects I would otherwise use in an installation.

So at this moment I envisage up to five small drawings of my own somehow framed and sequenced by Ross’s direct wall drawings. I also envisage Ross’s framed and larger drawing propped against the wall and arrived at curatorially by the object I arrange in the space.

Concurrently then, both myself and Ross will bring both a set of planned drawings to the exhibition setup and also a working process that we will apply to the space during install. Objects/plinths/barriers/pathways and Wall-drawings/frames/strands/labels.

Hope this is enough of a list for you Ross. No images with this post as I am on someone else’s computer and do not have access to my library.



Richard:

Ross, I like your sense of line, especially pink line.

I have just received a well received email from Ross with images attached that document my four photographic collage pieces in situ at ‘Abandoned House’. The work looks good and the colour of painted walls and ceiling matches the colour-way of the photographic content – and here referring to Ross’s comments an my work below – a little bit of my working process, enclosed within a snapshot/collage, is now embedded ‘permanently’ in to the same location as his work in Aberdeenshire. The location of the Abandoned house is, and I hope will remain, unknown to me. There’s something interesting and accomplishing about sending your work off in the post and getting back a photograph of it in another space miles and mile north of your studio.

I remember putting these images together in accepting that their permanent state in a holy, damp and dishevelled house. A permanent collection indeed, but not as far as the conditions go – give it a few weeks in to autumn and there will be nothing left of my oil paint, my photographs on cartridge paper and my private view cards turned over-leaf and used as backing for the collage. The idea may stand the test of time but the works themselves will not. I like this dichotomy – it dispels any preciousness in the work and accepts that the work itself is fleeting. The work itself is therefor a catalyst for the collaborative exercise?

So, I now sit here in my front room, looking north in fact to Fife over the river Forth and up to the clouded hills. I type and I respond in some way to what Ross has written below. I also anticipate a package in the post enclosing some of Ross’s work, which I will mount in my studio alongside my own work. A library as such of ongoing process, a place for reference as well as progression.

I have also just polished up an old steel frame that I do not mind being damaged or rusted by rain and by damp in the coming months of autumn and winter. The frame encloses another collage, this time multilayered: first a drawing on newsprint paper as backing, then another PV card turned over-leaf, another two photographic collages, an old drawing in pencil and coloured pen on old non acid-free paper lined with red squares (sourced from my Grandfather’s old house). The old drawing is similar in shape to Ross’s find during a sculptural trail near Scottish Sculpture Workshop. Next to this drawing, on the same paper, is a fine liner drawing of three leaves taken from the cheese plant that sits behind me.

Ross:

In order for this collaboration to work each individual practice cannot stray too far from the other, and we must have a continual correspondence through our visual thoughts.

With this in mind I am currently putting together a pack to send to Richard. He has been utilising photography to create images from his studio. My understanding is that these works are a representation of Richard’s studio practice. Sketches for ideas, collaged to create work. They act as an overview as to what Richard has been doing. I have the impression that these will grow into more sculptural forms in a gallery context and are to sit side by side with my work.

In order to make sure these don’t juxtapose with my practice Richard has asked me to send him some images from my working processes. No finished pieces, just sketches, ideas and the likes.

So this is what I will do.

What ever Richard chooses to do with these is wholly up to him but my presence will be imbedded inside each works.

I trust him fully.

Ross:

It has been a while since I have posted on here.

Working with an arts organisation can sometimes cost your practice, and finding time to create anything can be a hard push. I find myself working with a number of artists and talk heavily about their practice, but as my role does not include my own practice, it can be left behind.

Within a collaboration this can sometimes be difficult. Richard is left waiting for me to come back to him with answers and suggestions for where we are to move next. Alot of admin is required too. proposals and networking are a must in this world and if you are busy doing that for an organisation it proves difficult to get anything else done.

These are perhaps excuses and I SHOULD find the time, and I will. I have been installing images sent from Richard in the abandoned house and finding out that my own work has succumb to the weather. One flaw in house is the broken windows and the strong winds. Lets hope Richard’s work lasts a little longer.

All is not lost though, and I feel that the decline of my work is fitting to the house project. It is weathered and it is old but it remains. It will be found as it is and it’s state will fluctuate. It will get wet and then dry, it will be pinned back up then fall down again and will continue to follow a line where it’s interpretation may change. it will however continue to ask questions. Why is this here? For what purpose?

Chances are most of you who read this post will not see the house and that is fine. Your interpretation of the work lies here, and in your thoughts, that will be as ephemeral as the work itself.

This is what I like.

With so much work being produced around the country all I can hope for is a thought, a moment of interest. Something that might well dip in and out of your conscience from time to time. This reflects my print rather well I think. A state of flux which also references my recent activity in this collaboration.

It is however back at the front of my conscience. Lets hope it stays dry.

Images of Richard’s work will be posted soon, but for the time being I’ve attached an image of my latest work. Plain Cube