experiments with drawing
I love drawing. Sometimes it is a means to an end, sometimes it is an end in itself, and sometimes drawing is about making the first few tentative steps towards a new place, like learning to walk.
I came back to drawing earlier this year. I mean ‘came back’ because, although drawing has always been central to my practice, more often than not it had become largely routine on the way to producing something else. There’s nothing wrong with that per se – there were specific objectives after all. What I wanted to do was re-visit drawing.
I have shown four pieces here which represent where I am just now. ‘Juggernaut’ is a fairly big, detailed drawing, completed in May. This piece says what I wanted to say, in the way that I intended.
‘Dust’ comprises a group of four drawings shown at this year’s Venice Biennale.
The next two were made in France during the summer. ‘luv u’ uses drawing in a very different way, and far beyond the marks I made on the bones. The bones themselves – and the dust – are also symbolic and graphic marks.
The piece is about many different kinds of obsession, but it is equally about a search for other approaches to drawing. I could have used sand, say, but in the spirit of obsession I elected to make the dust myself by grinding down granite with a drill and a masonry bit. It is not so much about a particular message or series of messages (which is often at the core of much of my work, albeit with pathways to ambiguities), it represents a much more abstract series of metaphors, and one in which I also sought to consider the process of drawing. For example, whenever the piece is displayed, first the dust must be placed precisely, then the bones, to a plan. Thus the repeated ritual emphasises the obsession, and also thus the drawing is partially re-made.
‘Time Machine’ contains a message in the form of a small drawing hidden behind one of the controls. A bit like a message in a bottle, except that the recipient is specific.
It uses drawing, but the drawing cannot be seen: it is a conceptual piece. Some of my other work incorporates drawing in a three dimensional context; this is a 3D piece, but it is not a sculpture, it is all about the drawing. Come to think of it, it is a four-dimensional piece, too.
P.S. If you could borrow my time machine to send a message back to your previous self, what would you write or draw? I plan to have a post box to collect people’s thoughts when the piece goes on show (post here, or if you want to remain anonymous please email me). I really would like to know. [email protected]
