Selections Summer 2000

The Drawing

Center's

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The Drawing Center

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I am like a person who is seekingrandomly and doesnot know where the thing is hidden, which no one hasevernamedto him.

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A body is like a lodging. Sometimesthis lodging is even like a cage.My drawingp depict such things and also helmets, receptacles,and fragments of architecture. Remembrancesof something, these are, at the sametime, not what they seemto be; things that I do not have as well as those that are part of me.

I often work in series.The periods of time that I spend on a seriescan range from daysto years. Within a group of works I stick to one or two colors, red ink in this case.The individual drawing makes for a certain rhythm, which matters to all of them. Each drawing can change the others, or change the meaning of the series.

Drawing is somehow a processof finding. When I set out I hardly know what I am going to draw. Rather, the drawing is looking at me, and I sometimesdon't know its name.

Untitled drawingp, 1998-99 Mixed media, including in\ pencil, stitched holes and stitching on paper Sixteenat 12 518x9 7/16 n. (32 x 24 cm) Two at 9 7/16 x 12 5/8 'n. Q4 x 32 cm\

Nina Lola Bachhuber,born 1971,Munich, Germany;livesand works in New York.

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A perfect idyll would be a small housewith a tree in the yard and a star in the sky showing us the way home. Afairy tale image and an icon of positive meditation on which to focus in order ro gain strength and peaceof mind. But this is not the whole story. The hut in De Bruyckere'sarr grows out of the body. The female body protects life when it is at its most vulnerable.The body is the boundary between the privacy of the fetus and the public nature of the outside world. The body is a mediator betweenthe two; meanwhile,it also prepares for their encounter.

Berlinde de Bruyckere'ssoft, multi-colored hut constructionscreatea senseof being mediators.Both the physicaland psychologicaldirection is from the outside in-into the shelter-from the public into the private sphere.At the sametime, they refer to a homecoming where symbolsare no longer valid, where things are what they are. In this way, the homecoming can be interpreted as a typical pose for a woman artist-a retreat from the symbolic contract that often seemsunable to say anything about her life experience.But a retreat that preparesitself for returning, which, as a movement, is as natural as the human imprints indexed in the worn blanketsthat she usesin her sculpture and that bear tracesof rouch, yielding imitations of "a more subjective,inter-subjectivesense...betweenthe active and the passive."'

The veiling of the face, of the gaze,is a gestureof hiding from the outside world; it blocks out communication and renders impossiblethe definition of the self. The act of veiling is also a sign of concentration on the mind and the body. The hideawaybecomesa locus of protection for the person inside whose original need for it is exemplifiedby the bodily posruresdepicted in De Bruyckere'sdrawings.At the sametime, the body preparesitself both for reception and for giving shelter to others. This is done with outstretchedarms, extending the veiled condition to the viewers,inviting them to take shelter in the empire where linear time ceasesto exist, as the senseof being in the world, which ultimately is experiencedas something "round."' But this is roundnessin the female senseof the word; it is capableof receiving, and not only of extending itself.

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All works are watercolor and gouache on board and in the Collection of the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp.

Maria Cossijns,1994 One at l0 lJ/16 x 16 15/16 in. (27.5 x 43 cm) O n e a t 1 2 3 / 1 6x 16 l/8 in . ( 3 1x 4 l cm )

Untitled, 1994 Four at l7 1/2 x ll l/4 in. (44.5x 28.5cm) One at l 5 9/16x l l 5/8 i n. (39.5x 29.5cm) Three at I 3 3/8 x 10 l/4 in. (34 x 26 cm) One at 119/16 x lO 3/4 in. (29.3x 27.3 cm)

Untitled, 1995 Four at l5 l/2 x lO 7/8 in. (39.3x 27.5 cm)

VroauenBoom,1995 One at l5 l/2 x l0 7/8 in. (39.3x 27.5cm)

Berlindede Bruyckere,born [964, Gent, Belgium;livesand works in Gent.

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These narrativesare basedon memories, dreams,and reinterpreted stories.The metaphors are derived from language, sayings,and misunderstandings.My aim is to invite misunderstandings in order to reinvent the stories.

The narratives involve people and animals. Frequently, parts of the figures are replaced by domestic objects that embody the function of that particular character.The objects used are common items that usually have an inherent purpose. Whether the object is a basket or a bed, it provides a basic function in our everyday lives. In these narratives such objects serve as symbols of a person or a memory.

Animals play the same role as inanimate objects-initially as an animal itself and then as a cultural reference to something that exists outside the work.

The metaphors or narratives can start out with borrowed charactersfrom well-known tales and develop into a new episode or segment. The borrowed charactersare revisited on the days that they are not in their starring roles. I like to think that the stories we've all been told representjust one day in the life of that character.What happenedto Litde Red Riding Hood the day after both she and her grandmother were consumed by the wol0 I have my doubts that she returned home unfazed by the prior day'sevents.

I see these drawings as snapshotsfrom these events outside the story. The figures are void of any background that would anchor their situation or establish a specific time. By situating them on white, the logical or anticipatedorder of the characters'actionsremainsunclear.

This allows the segment of the tale portrayed to remain open-ended. I'm not trying to overlook the moral of the tale but rather to revisit the elements that still linger in my mind.

All drawingsare gouacheon paperand, mless othemise noted, 22 x3O in. (55.9x76.2 cm).

The Bud.dySystem,1996 14x 20 in. (35.6x 50.8cm)

FiaeHeadsin a &ed,2000 Four Linle Pigs,2000 GrandOpening,2000

Haruest,2000 Interspection,1999 Mawkisb,2000 Stihs,1999 Toss,t999 mili,1996 14x 20 in. (35.6x 50.8cm)

New York; lives and works in Brooklyn.

Amy Cuder, born 1974,Poughkeepsie,

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This is part of a body of work made on the semi-obsoleteAmiga computer and the very obsoleteDiablo printer. Before I got the computer in 1986 I used to make pagesof tiny sketchesfor paintings, altering the colors, composition, text, imagery you name it. The problem was that the sketcheswere made with such abandon that the paintings never came out as good. The prints I'm exhibiting were similarly made as ideas for paintings and ditto: I often preferred the computer sketches.I've alwayswanted to show them, but the crummy ink made for the Devil fades away rather quickly when exposedto light. Plus the colors of the ink change around unpredictably when the printer heats up, so I never know what's coming. This is the first (and possibly the last) exhibition of prints featuring the Girlfriend and the Devil due to the aforementioned disappearing act.

Probably my least favorite artistic expressionis that of the confessional.But, unconsciously, I am forever trying to sort out my mistakes, divest myself of some unpleasant thought forms, or give some believability to anxious hopes by bringing them into the light of day. So even if I said that I was just painting George Jones jumping off a cliff in a Louis Vuitton jumpsuit, I'd later realize that I had illustrated my urge to have sexwith my Dad or something. It's kind of a drag, but I'm resigned. I don't seem to have anything that the rest of the modern world isnt crawling with.

Twelve printous from Diablo ink-jet printer

Skunk (CalainKeif , 1999 24 x 18 in. (61x 45.7cm)

AnythingYouWant,1999 22 x 16 in. (55.9x '10.6cm)

Because Daddy,2000 23 1/2 xi7 in. (59.7x 94 cm)

Bird (Schiaparelli), 1999 26 l/2 x 19 l/2 in. (67.3x 49.5cm)

Don't,2000 23 x 18 l/2 in. (58.4x 47 m)

My Tiiple-HeadedMonster,2000 20 x 36 in. (50.8x 91.4m)

Tlte PlatoPatbolog, 2000

Thketbe Dream, 1999 22 x 14 in. (55.9x 35.6cm)

'TilThere WasYou,1999 22 x 16 in. (55.9x 40.6cm)

TioublePerfume,1999 24 x l7 in. (61x 43.2cm)

Und.oFucMisery, 1999 2l x 14 1/2 in. (53.3x 36.8m)

Wmr Wmt GoodShit,2000 2l x30 l/2 in. (53.3x 77.5cm)

23 x21 in. (58.4x 53.3cm)

GeorganneDeen, born 1951,Fort Worth, Texas;lives and works in Los Angeles.

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The Confessions of Mlle. G.

Think for a moment of the following masterworks:Caravaggio'sEntombnaent, Ztrbar6n's martyred Saint Serapian,and Bernini's St. Tbresaof Auila in Eatasy.In each of these, a revered figure is shown in a moment when breath has either passedforever or has ceased momentarily in rapture. These apparentlylifelessforms are draped in the cloth of the dead or of their religious habits. Even without the bodies they wrap, thesecloths become backdropsfor light shows:shadowsand highlights emergeand disappearacrosspainted or sculptedsurfaces.In the cloth are revealedboth life and death; the light and darknessthat precededthe body and will survive it.

Margaret Evangeline'sextensiverange of work invites such associations.Often, especiallyin her paintings on aluminum, she representsthe blood of passionand death shed by women throughout history. Historically, women were not supposedto exposedramatic eroticism. If they did it had to be cloakedin the languageof religious ecstasy.Only in the body of Christ should women find their desiresfulfilled. The sorry Mlle. G, the subjectof Evangeline's paper installation, had no such piety.

Presentedto the members of Paris'sMedico-PsychologicalSociety in 1845 by a Dr. Baillarger as a casestudy of "erotomania," Mlle. G. (robbed of her name in history despite her complete devotion to the spewingforth of her erotic imagination to anyonewho would listen) is describedas "spendingher day lying on her back, her legs spreadand bent at the knees,the only position she can tolerate becauseas soon as her thighs are touching she feels a fiery heat in the genitals,followed immediately by extremelyintense sensationsand the venerealspasm.Her bed sheetseven aggravatedher genital heat."

Evangeline'scommemorativebed, thanks to the steadfastness of the interleaving paper (the kind reservedfor specialedition books), appearsas if Mlle. G. has just left it for a moment.

Frozen in time by the furious gesturesEvangelineused to createthe rumpled bed sheet effect, the young woman's presenceis eerily intact. The layersand layersof paper are folded with the secretshistory has kept to itself about Mlle. G. Reducedto a casestudy,her story is incomplete. Her side is untold until no% perhaps,as each of us brings our imaginings to her bedside,offering her the attention and compassiondeprived her by the scientific diagnosticianswho judged she "had been driven insaneby a desirein her genital parts."

The fragile silenceof this installation (if you rolled on it, you'd make quite a racket) reminds us of history's forgetfulness.How many women, aflamewith desirebut cossetedby cultural decorum, lay on beds that yielded no pleasure?For every hospitalizedMlle. G., how many young women, not "born of an insanemother," as she reportedly was, harbored similar fantasiesthat went unexpressed?

Evangelinetreats the surfacesof the paper as repositoriesof memory. She inflicts torch burns that speakof both the heat of desireand the scorching of self in erotic as well as mystical love. In similar fashion,she leavescluesin the gentle uneven lines of blue she paints in odd placeson the paper.Only visible through probing, thesemarks of color (blue, mind you, not red, as might be predicted) suggesta tranquillity beneath the rage, a senseof knowing on Mlle. G.'s part, that she'snot as crazy

Margaret Evangeline, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; lives and works in New York.

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as her caretakersthink, just desirous.The play of light and shadowin the creasedpaper offers further texture to the extremesof emotion presentedhere.

One can readilyseewhy Evangelinereachesback into the livesof fearlesswomen,whether saints,monarchs,or misunderstoodmental patients,to extractfrom their focuseddesires, involvementwith her art. Sheunderstandsthe dissolving netaphors for her own passionate of the self in rnysticaland erotic union, physicalizingit through thesesubtleburns.Like other artistsof her generationshe is concernedwith the body and with gesturethat links the work of art to the rnotion of the artist.For Evangeline,however,her senseof the physicalis joined to extensivehistoricaland personalinvestigationsthat bespeaka profound connectionto human (particularlyfemale)history and longing.

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In my drawing and drawing installations, I combine fuian and Western histories and mythologies, bringing them to bear on present day realities. In particular, I am interested in the potency of fear, an interest that comes from my Taiwanesechildhood in which ghosts were used to shape my value systems.

Installation is crucial to the ways in which I explore the concepts of fear and vulnerability.

At first glance, the work seemsminimal, offering a surface that appearsnearly imageless.

The piece unfolds as the viewer approachesand discoversa highly worked surface.The viewer is unable to stand back and passively gazeat the drawings from a safe distance, but must instead engage the work by bending or stretching to look into openings that lead to more layers and drawings. Beyond where the body can go, the eye can still negotiate the interior passages,allowing exploration to continue. The eye confronts images of human/ animal hybrids, cannibalism, many suggesting self-inflicted or externally imposed penetrations into flesh, inciting the kinds of fears we harbor of the possible consequencesof transgressing authority.

I seek to create work that is both seductive and unsetding: the paper offers a softnessand warmth, while ambiguities of surface and depth are fraught with unpredictability. It is through these transgressionsof boundaries of subject matter and medium that my work confronts its themes.

For All the Teasin Cbina. 1999 Ink on paper,electricalpipes,able, and stool, 7 x 10 ft. (2. I 3 x 3 m)

Edward Pien, born 1958, Taipei, Thiwan; lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

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The Drawing Center is the only not-for-profit institution in the country to focus solely on the exhibition of drawings, both contemporary and historic. It was establishedin 1976 to provide opportunities for emerging and under-recognizedartists; to demonstratethe significanceof drawings throughout history; and to stimulate public dialogue on issuesof art and culture.

This is number 10 of the Drawing Papers,a seriesof publications documenting The Drawing Center's exhibitions and public programs and providing a forum for the study of drawing.

The Drawing Paperspublication seriesis printed on Monadnock Dulcet 100# Smooth Text and 80# Dulcet Smooth Cover.

Major support for the development and presentation of the Drawing Papershas been generouslycontributed by FrancesDittrner.

Summer2000 has been provided by the Flemish Government of Support for Selections Belgium and The Canadian Consulate General, New York.

The Drawing Center is grateful for the support it receivesfor its exhibition programs and operations from the following sources: Benefactors Adler Family Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, Fifth Floor Foundation, The Getty Ti-ust, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc., Abby and Mitch Leigh Foundation, Estate of Paula Vial Lempert, The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., New Line Cinema/Fine Line Features,Mondriaan Foundation Amsterdam, May and SamuelRudin Family Foundation, Inc., Stimuleringsfondsvoor Architectuur, Eugene V and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Tirrst, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Msual Arts.

Major Sponsors Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., EdwardJohn Noble Foundation,BlanchetteHooker Rockefeller Fund, New York Community Tirrst.

Sponsors

agndsb., AXA Nordstern Art Insurance Corp., ChaseManhattan Bank Foundation, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Cowles Charitable Ti-ust, eArtGroup.com, Katherine Farley and Jerry I. Speyer,The Graham Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, Thomas Isenberg, Helen & Martin Kimmel, Sally & Howard Lepow, Matthew Marks, The Penny McCall Foundation, J.P. Morgan Charitable Ti'ust, Philip Morris Companies Inc., The Netherland-America Foundation. Melvin R. Seiden.Sothebv's.

Friends Patricia & Alan B. Abramson, Ann & StevenAmes, Harriett Ames Charitable Ti.ust, Naomi & StephenAntonakos, Anne H. Bass,Melva Bucksbaum,The Buhl Foundation, ConstanceR. Caplan,Christie's,CharlesCowles,Jan Cowles,The Chubb Corporation, Rebecca& Loic de Kertanguy, Rebecca& Martin Eisenberg, Susan& Arthur Fleischer,Jr., Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc., Lorna & Lawrence Graev,The William and Mary Greve Foundation,Inc.,Janine &J.Tomlinson Hill, Home Box Office (HBO), Mr. & Mrs. James R. Houghton, Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies,Allison Lasley,Wendy Mackenzie& AlexanderCortesi, Lorne Michaels,The Felix & ElizabethRohatyn Foundation, Lisa & David T Schiff, Lily & Axel Stawski.

Withsignificant npportfrom National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Departrnent of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts and The Drawins Center's National Council and Members.

Boardof Direaon

Dita Amory GeorgeNegroponte Co-Chairmen FrancesBeattyAdler JamesM. ClarbJr. FrancesDittrner Colin Eisler BruceW. Ferguson Michael Iovenko Werner H. Kramarsky Abby Leigh William S. Lieberman Michael Lynne ElizabethRohagm" Eric C. Rudin Dr. Allen Lee Sessoms JeanneC. Thayer* Edward H. Tirck ElizabethWeir AndreaWoodner Catherinede7*gher Executive Director *Emerita

WewingProgmmCunrnime Catherine de Z,egher, Director Luis Camnitzer, ViewingProgramCurator Elizabeth Finch, Curator Arturo Herrera, ViewingProgramCurator Victoria Noorthoorn, ViewingProgramandExhibitionsCoordinator Allison Plastridge, Curatorialfusisant andRegistrar

The IlrawingCenter 35 Wooster Street NewYork, NY 10013 Telz 212-219-2166 Fax:212-966-2976

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Designer:Luc Derycke Copy editors:ElizabethFinch and Lyde Shaw Coordinator: Katie Dyer @ 2000The Drawing Center