Category Archives: Part 3 Physicality and gesture

Tutor Report Part 3

For Part 3, I received a video tutorial with my tutor Emma Drye, followed by a written report. I was really grateful for the video tutorial, as after feeling quite cut off from everything during the quarantine, this positive and encouraging video chat, really boosted my enthusiasm again.

I had had a lot of fun with Part 3 though, and felt really happy that the projects were light and fun and possible to do in family, like for example blind drawing. Emma Drye also commented on how the video that I submitted for Assignment 3 was a great example of studying with the OCA, combining making art with a role in the family. In the video of spontaneous and intuitive drawing to music, my family pass through and play an important role. My tutor pointed out, that there is a professional quality to the video whilst still feeling personal and the choice of music was exactly right.

We also discussed the Parallel project, which helped formulate it further: “Your other body of work is a slow deconstruction of your home and an exploration of the community narratives that connect it and you to your neighbors.”

We discussed narratives; who owns them and who are they for. We discussed our house as a nexus of narratives and how having moved into it suddenly for lock down have made us part of this narrative. We also discussed how far they might extend beyond the house, or whether neighbors might be invited in, as well as how the stories can be communicated.

We also discussed other artists that have worked around the concepts of place, home or belonging, which is tying in to the parallel project and a subject I am curious about for the Critical review as well:

Daniel Miller – the comfort of things (book), Hans Peter Feldman – archives, Jeremy Deller , Cornelia Parker, Andrew Cranston, Vija Celmins

I will write a separate post researching these artists in the research section of the Parallel project.

We also discussed how painting as well as drawing can be a part of the work and looked at the paintings with figures and lampshades that I did as part of the Parallel project. Emma Drye encouraged me to slow down, to work in more preparatory steps that I then pin up around the easel. Working in oil, I will let the paint dry in between layers, which will help create a sense of space. In my paintings, there is a lot of blending. When creating more distinct layers, the surface of the painting creates a bridge to 3D, which brings dynamism to the process. If not, it has to be more clear, that the flat character is a conscious choice, like for example in the paintings of Paula Rego.

Emma Drye also asked how the many tiles and patterns in the house can find their way into the project, which is an aspect that had slipped away for me somewhat- so it was a good reminder. To be honest, the chocking overwhelm of the different pattern have already become so familiar after a few months in the house.

I really like the format of the video tutorial, which gives more space for discussion, and then a follow up with a written report which emphasizes the main points again, also containing a list of interesting and relevant artists to research. I feel ready to launch into Part 4, and to continue exploring the Parallel project.

Assignment 3

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Course Manual: “Select a piece of music (preferably classical or at least rhythmically complex) and allow your movements to be affected or generated by it whilst producing a drawing. To begin with, generate your lines and marks solely in response to the music. After the first hour, develop this further. For example, you could introduce an observational element such as self-portraiture and begin to explore the interplay between gesture and representation. Alternatively you might decide to video yourself making the work to emphasise the performative nature of gesture.”

I always listen to music in my headphones when I draw or paint, often as a tool to close out other sounds from what is happening around me.

I do not think I have ever made a drawing solely as a response to the music though, without a pre-concieved idea.

For this assignment, I created a playlist with music from Philipp Glass, mixed from the three albums Koyaaniqatsi, Solo Piano and Powaqqatsi. I choose this composer, as his music is definitely rhythmically complex and because it brings me through a very wide range of emotions with anything from very dark, hard stomping sounds, to light flute or calming piano. This is the playlist:

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The whole is a few minutes over one hour long, and I plan to play it twice. The first round, I will just draw wildly, mainly keeping my eyes closed and really letting myself go and just feel the music. The focus will be entirely on the process. Then after that first hour, I will step back and see if I can pick out any figurative elements in the drawing. Then, I will listen to the same playlist again for the next hour, accentuating those figurative elements, while still moving to the music and letting the music inform my marks.

I start with a few test marks on approximately A2 papers while listening to the beginning of each song to see what materials feel appropriate.

I am going to move and dance to the music while drawing- so I prepare a large sheet of paper- it is approximately 150×300 cm.

I prepare a wide array of black and white media- charcoal, graphite pencils, markers, Indian ink, watercolour and acrylics with lots of different brushes. As for the previous emotional response exercise, I decide to use only black and white media, to emphasize the focus on the mark-making rather than colour.

I am ready to start!

Photo on 4-11-20 at 10.59 AM #2

I am aware that this is more of a performance, focusing on the dancing and moving my body while translating movement and emotions into physical marks on the paper, rather than expecting any finished “good” drawing as an outcome.

Luckily, Tom is in COVID 19 lockdown with us and he agrees to document the process by filming it.

After one hour of non stop dancing and drawing, I am exhilarated and exhausted! I take a 15 minute break, shower and have a look if we can find some figurative elements. It seems like a face hovering over Hong Kong harbor is coming out.

I am ready for round 2 and set the music to play again. This time I work more aware of the figurative elements. I still move intuitively in pace with the music, but keep track of what I do. My granddaughter wakes up from her nap and joins in the dancing and drawing.

After the second hour, this is how the drawing looks (150x300cm):

This movie, documenting the process, filmed and edited by Tom Woodfin (@perceptionarchitecture), is my final piece for Assignment 3:

Drawing for two hours intensely to music was an absolutely incredibly profound process. I was tingling of excitement and exhaustion after these two hours, and can not begin to tell what rollercoaster of emotions I experienced during the drawing.

It was very interesting for me to experience the difference between my state of almost trance during the first hour, where I felt no need to even look at the result, and could just loose myself in the music, and the second hour, where I was still dancing, but remaining focused on the outcome. This opens up to a new, intense and rich way of approaching drawing and painting. I am really surprised that something as figurative as this could come out of this dance. And I am pleased to see that the final drawing still transmits the movement and the power of the dance.

Tom who was present and filming during large parts of the process, was so fascinated by what was happening, that he asked me to repeat the experience for his breathwork session. Tom is a breathwork facilitator, and is working on Zoom from my studio at the minute, due to the Covid 19 restrictions.

So the very next day, we set up two large papers on opposite walls, one for each of us.

42 people from various parts of the world joined the session over Zoom, and all through the one hour 20 minute long session of music and breath exercises, Tom and I were dancing and drawing. This time, I pushed the concept of a performance even further, by having an audience, even if this audience was online and mostly eyes closed while they were breathing.

This is how my drawing looked after the 1 hour 20 minutes very varied music.

I decided to repeat the exercise above, and came back alone the next day, playing the same tracks while continuing the drawing consciously.

This time I had a really hard time seeing any figurative elements to start with, except for three boats in the left bottom corner. I decided to not change the overall composition,by inventing what I did not see, but lift out elements that jumped out at me.

This is the final drawing- rather apocalyptic with Covid 19 masks appearing again (150×300 cm):

Here are some details that I like:

The experiences of these drawings to music have been profound. They have pushed me further towards performance and let me loosen the need for a clear or “good” outcome. I feel like a whole new ways of approaching drawing and painting are opening up here, a more intuitive and gestural approach. I am curious to explore how I can incorporate these experiences into more conceptual work as well.

3.4 An emotional response

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Course manual: “Aim: This project is in some ways the antithesis of the previous one. Last time, you used an object to draw ‘for’ you; this time you’ll allow your own emotional responses to direct your physical mark-making.

Method: Take 10 pieces of card and give them to friends. Ask them to write down a characteristic of someone in a novel or newspaper article in the first person. Ask them to choose something which might engender an emotional or physical response. Examples might be ‘I killed 15 women’ or ‘I won the lottery’ or ‘I feel nervous at parties’.Ask someone to sit for you as a model. Every 10 minutes ask them to read from one of the cards. As they read the statement out, try to change the way you use your materials to respond to the statement. Make angry, scared, joyful marks as prompted.

I used this project as a quarantine game for the family again, so all agree to write some of the cards containing statements engendering an emotional response.

I start by trying out different marks as a response to different emotions in my A4 sketchbook. I am not using the cards yet- I do not want to spoil my first reaction to them by having read them before drawing the model.

These are marks in answer to sad, angry, happy, dreamy, elated, furious, scared, claustrophobic etc:

I have decided to stay monochrome and only use grey or black materials, to really let the marks be the focus, not any colours.

Today Tom has agreed to sit for me (while listening to a podcast). I prepare an A2 sheet of paper on a board and graphite pencils in different grades, charcoal sticks, some Indian ink and different brushes and an array of black markers.

The first 10 minute card that he pulls out reads: “I sometimes wish I had never been born at all”.

I can feel tears here and decide to start with ink and water that I can let run down over the face like tears, using a rather small brush, like a not so loud voice. So this is how the drawing starts:

I think the defeated and teary look caught the emotion of the statement.

Next card reads: ” I am wood”.

For this card, I use a 7B pencil, wanting to touch the wood of the pencil and letting my marks be both soft and hard as if feeling the surface of wood. My pencil is moving as if sanding the surface.

Close- ups:

Third card: “I like to eat the birds” (What??) I do not know what I am feeling here, it is very confusing. There is a strange spiraling of thoughts here, so I decide to capture that spiraling motion. I choose a black 01 marker.

A closer look:

Fourth card: “I wish someone would love me”. For this statement, I feel deep sadness again, and it is a quiet voice. I choose a thinner black marker and make very tight, tense, small marks:

Fifth card: “It is time for me to revolt”

It is time to take a thick charcoal stick and move in strong, revolting, angular, decisive marks:

I let the figure raise the arms and straighten up the shoulders from the slumped position, also there is a new decisive trait over the eyes.

Having arrived here, I decide that this drawing is complete and decide to start on a new A2 paper for the next 5 cards with statements.

Card number 1: “I say- hey fuckface- this ebook will change your life in like 5 minutes or something” (Seriously, family?)

This statement feels very arrogant. I respond by grabbing a nr 1 black marker and make bold, big, sweeping marks with my nose held high.

This looks rather terrible and has no likeness at all to my sitter.

Card nr 2: “I am stuck in mental traffic”

This is definitely a subtler, swirling, spiraling mark. I use a 0,5 technical graphite pencil for very intricate swirling, repetitive marks, leaving the figure and spinning around the head.

This is the drawing at this stage:

Third card: “I will shoot anyone who breaks quarantine” (actually said by Philippine President Duterte).

I am relieved at finding such a strong, hard statement that I can respond to with a thick brush loaded with Indian ink in strong, hard strokes- just what this drawing needs.

This arranged the shape of the figure and brought back a certain slight likeness.

Fourth card: “I think everything will be ok.”

For this soothing and calming feeling, I go back to a graphite pencil, in 9B for a darker mark. I use more classical cross hatching as my marks, for a certain feeling of familiarity.

The fifth and last card: “I lost myself between your legs.” I almost feel like I should grab some flesh-coloured pastels here, but decide to stay with my monochrome idea and instead add water with a thin brush, letting very diluted ink flow down the background and figure.

This is the final drawing:

This was a really interesting exercise in pushing my mark-making further and especially in translating an emotional response into a physical one. It depended quite strongly on the statements how accurately it felt that I could translate them. The clearer the emotional response, the easier it was to turn the feeling into physical mark making.

I think both drawings show a wide range of emotional responses and different marks, but I think the second one feels more coherent as a portrait of the sitter AND as a translation of the statements.

3.3 Drawing machines

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Course manual: “Aim: Push the concept of marks as a tracery of movement to its logical conclusion by making marks incidental to your own movement.

Method: Find something which moves and attach a drawing medium to it so that it creates a drawing by itself. You might use a remote control car, a clock face, a door which is opened regularly, the foot of a dancer. Develop these automatic drawings using source material from your sketchbook or simply by responding to what you find as you experiment. Note carefully what happens when you shift the drawing from automatically produced marks to considered ones.”

LINE IN THE WIND

I am observing a bed sheet flapping on the clothesline in the wind, and decide to try a first “drawing machine” experiment there.

As the wind is quite strong, a charcoal stick or a pencil are too light- they would just fly around. I attach a stick to a string and dip the end in Indian ink. I attach a Canson A2 paper between two bricks.

I am really pleased with the variety of marks and shapes the stick is drawing.

The ink dries in the wind, so I have to dip the point in ink a few times.

This is the point where I decide that the drawing is finished:

I see a delicate flower and am really happy with this first drawing machine drawing.

For a second drawing, I add another stick, which I dip in W&N Vermellion ink, besides the first stick with Indian ink:

This is the result:

It is more chaotic than the drawing with only one stick, but I am pleased at the result. It has a clear center and the composition is held up by the accidental red dot on the left.

PLANT IN THE WIND

I decide to complicate the drawings further by attaching four thin markers- three black and one orange- to a small plant that is waving wildly in the wind.

I am really quite fascinated by the marks and patterns created. When the markers stop, as if reflecting where to swing next, they leave a stronger dot.

This is plant drawing number one:

It looks like a complicated constellation or map- I really like what came out of this.

I try this a second time, and add the stick dipped in ink for a short moment in the end- to create different values to the marks:

WASHING MACHINE

Our washing machine has a whole life of its own during the spinning cycle, so I decide to explore this as a drawing machine.

I suspend a row of coloured pencils and oil pastels, all in different blue shades, over the machine.

Although the machine has moved a good 20 cm forwards during the cycle, there are hardly any marks on the paper. The drawing materials are too light and make too faint a mark. I decide to repeat the experiment with coloured markers instead:

This time the result is more exciting:

As a drawing, I am less fascinated by it than by the more harmonious wind drawings both from the clothesline and from the little plant. The marks form less of a coherence here, but there are some interesting, almost cartoon figures within the lines.

THE BLENDER

Watching the blender shudder and swirl, I have another drawing tool.

Here I am using a thin paper roll from IKEA that can easily be bent and formed in the shape of the blender.

I first start by using some left overs of charcoal sticks that I simply throw in and start:

I am not sure what I was expecting, but the result is disappointing:

Next, I try some diluted Indian ink:

I place the paper on top of the bowl instead of inside, and use the pulse function, swirling the ink up to touch the paper.

These two trials are more interesting than the charcoal one. I need something small and hard to swirl up with the motion and touch the paper though. I decide to add flaxseeds to my ink mixture.

This worked quite well- I like the explosive patterns:

As the paper is thin, it even comes with a texture .

One more attempt:

For a last experiment, I place the paper inside the blender:

This was a fun experiment, and reflects well the explosive force of the blender.

I am still mostly pleased with the four first ones created by the wind. They all have very delicate and intricate patterns with a variety of marks. I choose to continue working on these, seeing a pattern like flightlines over a map.

For the first one, I recreate a map under the lines using watercolour.

The result is too literal, to illustrative. For a next trial, I will only use Payne’s grey and black watercolours- aiming more for a schematic map.

I prefer this result, but I do still not think that the original drawing has improved.

For the last one where I recognize a delicate flower, I will only colour in the background to lift out the lines- again using Payne’s grey watercolour:

Unfortunately, I think all these drawings were more interesting before I started changing them. I liked the variety and “hesitation” of the marks, where they would suddenly change direction, something which I would not use if I was drawing consciously myself.

Rebecca Horns’ Drawing Machines

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After my own trials with creating some simple drawing machines, it was really interesting to explore Rebecca Horns’ work.

In her earlier works from the 1970’s, she created sculptural constructions that were most often extensions of her own body, like “Pencilmask” below, or a variety of feather masks.

Pencil Mask 1972 by Rebecca Horn born 1944

(Image from: Tate. 2020. Tate, Art, artworks. [Online]. [13 April 2020]. Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/horn-pencil-mask-t07847)

This Pencilmask still required the artists’ presence and physical movements to leave marks. In that way, Horn explored her own body and limitations or feelings when extended. While wearing these constructs, she could also explore various levels of control and interaction. Some masks, like her “Black Cockfeathers mask” or “Cocatoo mask” were designed to look at and meet another person with the altered vision that these masks would give the wearer, questioning her own views and subjectivity. After severe lung poisoning she spent a year very sick and in isolation. After that a lot of her work deals with interaction. She used a variety of media, but came to fame through these sculptural constructions that were then used in performances and for films.

In “Finger gloves” from 1972, Horn created gloves with really long fingers. She is exploring the limitations of her own body by reaching beyond it, and also exploring the space beyond the own body and the objects she can reach with her constructed fingers.

Finger Gloves 1972 by Rebecca Horn born 1944

“I feel myself touching, see myself grasping, and control the distance between myself and the objects.” (Quote and image from Tate website: Tate. 2020. Tate, Finger Gloves Rebecca Horn. [Online]. [13 April 2020]. Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/horn-finger-gloves-t07845).

I find these constructs fascinating and would just love to try any of them!

I am watching the beautiful documentary about Rebeccas journey called “Rebecca Horn is travelling” on You Tube. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vqiFRZfCMw)

For many of her installations, Horn used very varied objects- from violins and a piano to hospital beds. She likes to combine very fragile objects, like feathers, and others that evoke a feeling of danger to create tension between them. The violin that plays itself is a recurring object- a symbol of a person, or a person that has left. In the documentary, we follow the installation of “Free as a bird” from 1999, a spiral of hospital beds where violins play. She increasingly withdrew from performing herself, letting the objects take center stage and creating mechanical sculptures with movements and sounds. These sculptures are not perfect- and she explains how their imperfections and hesitations make them more human.

Later she started constructing automated drawing machines, where she has removed more of her own control. In “Flying books under Black rain painting” from 2015 at Harvard University, she lets a machine spray black paint over a white wall and three books.

Index_A-Refresh-for-Rebecca-Horn-01

(Image from: Harvard. 2020. Harvard Art Museums, Collections, Rebecca Horn. [Online]. [13 April 2020]. Available from: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections?q=Rebecca+Horn+)

There is an interesting tension in the drawing machines, between the cold, mechanical, calculated construction, and then the element out of control, the way the drops fall through gravity and mark the wall. This feels like a big step away from the control of the earlier works where the body was still initiating the movement and in itself an essential element of the investigation. The artist seems to imbue the machines with almost human qualities though, and sees how they can express emotions.

3.2 Experiments with mark- making

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Course manual: “Aim: This project continues the theme of focusing attention on your own physicality and opening up your method to new ways of moving.”

I used my own physicality to explore mark-making for the body paintings in Assignment 2 – applying the paint on various body parts and pressing them to paper or canvas.

This exercise is asking me to remove control in another way- by applying the drawing material on a long stick that will require my whole body to move while making the marks.

I set up a still life with three lampshades- a subject that I want to explore as part of my parallel project as well. I attach a charcoal stick to the end of a long bamboo stick ( approx 2,5 m long) and stretch a large piece of paper on the floor:

This is the outcome:

In a second phase, I attach a whole bundle of oil pastel crayons together in different combinations.

This is the finished drawing:

The lines are somewhat wobbly, but other than that, this could have been a large version of a quick charcoal drawing in my sketchbook. I am not sure it is a record of my struggle.

I enjoy the coloured “woven” effects that appear from the bundle of crayons, and also the shape of the tiles on the floor appearing in the drawing as a rubbing.

I decide to complicate the situation with introducing a chair and a pitcher to the composition.

I think this time I achieved a super-accurate representation of my own struggle! (Especially on the chair!)

I notice a struggle for control while making these drawings. The brain does not quite want to let go and allow ‘free” marks to happen- looking at the still life there is still a struggle to represent it accurately.

In the end, these more free lines, that show how I had to wriggle my whole body to manipulate the stick with the charcoal, feel more fresh and interesting than a more accurate drawing. Definitely a find to carry forward.

3.1 Drawing blind

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Course manual: “Aim: This project should make you very aware of how your brain works when you’re drawing – by changing the sense that you’re translating into physical movement from sight to touch. As you’ll see, translating the visual processing of three dimensions into a physical movement designed to leave a trace on two dimensions, which in turn may give the illusion of three dimensions, is a highly sophisticated process.

Method: Choose a smallish object you know well, preferably something with a fairly distinctive shape. Position it on a table with a sketchpad next to it. Put your pencil in the middle of your sketchpad then close your eyes. Reach out for your object and feel it; as you do this, make a record of what you feel on your sketchpad with your pencil. Feel free to take a peek and reposition your pencil at any time, but do so as little as possible. Make several studies until you feel that you’ve arrived at something interesting.”

I start this exercise in the A4 sketchbook, by choosing to touch a small plant on my table. I also try it touching my foot.

I am noting an interesting resistance to letting go of the control that the sight gives, there is an urge to peek .

Having little time to myself these quarantine days, I transform this into a family activity, where we all, baby included, sit around the table and draw blind. I touch my own face for self portraits and then we draw each other without looking at the paper.

This produces some hilarious portraits and much laughter- I can definitely recommend it as an activity for quarantine days!

It is interesting to note how it took several attempts to move from a schematic, imagined view to actually draw what I felt, touching my face.

On this page, I tried to touch my face for the top one, and imagine it without looking at the page for the bottom drawing. The touching one definitely feels more evocative and true, compared to the imagined one that becomes a caricature. In the comparison, I understood that when wanting, I could let go and record the sensation of touch, and rather than trying to substitute sight, let that lead me to a new language.