Wimbledon Space
15-23 March 2018
Against Static Curated by
Tania Kovats
Against Static
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Tania Kovats, March | 2018
Drawing has its own distinct expanding field whilst evolving alongside other aspects of practice and technologies. With so many possible approaches the question arises what counts as drawing? The exhibition showcases how current students on the MA Drawing course are answering that question. This includes an expanding field of drawing practices where you might let sound vibrate ink on a scroll sew your self portrait collage vast powerlines dismantle life drawing use the flicker of a screen or the silencing of a footstep use lines and patterns of displacement in lazer cut wood make a cat’s cradle use a pinhole camera and draw in the darkroom draw someone else’s description of a landscape follow the trace of a dying insect, or a plastic surgeon’s marks on the body make hair rise penetrate experience through portraiture or repeatedly place one blade of grass with another. Resisting the static is important. There is so much crackling and hissing in the mind that presents a challenge to hear what we need to listen to, or possibly even hear a silence. Drawing can bring an individual into a state of focus and attention that is against static, in which ever sense of the word is most useful: in opposition to or into contact with. Students on the MA Drawing course are locating their purpose with their practice to express concerns relevant to them and communicate that relevance to others.
Silvia De Giorgi This series of works, based on a voice recording of a walk through a landscape, explores the idea of natural environment as unfinished and openended space, existing as an ever-changing web of interconnected moments and movements. In my practice I strive to unravel the many-layered relationships between landscapes, narratives and people. My projects are strongly influenced by memories and experiences connected to my native landscape in the Italian Alps and to travelling and walking through new places and natural surroundings.
Moving Maps (detail) Various tools, carbon paper on drawing paper, 2018 s.degiorgi1@arts.ac.uk
Yawen Du The theme of my drawing is plastic surgery, and I use it as a feminine language to expose the beauty of women who sacrifice their health and life in pursuit of beauty. I come from China where I am an artist and educator.
Plastic Surgery Mixed Media, 2018 y.du1120161@arts.ac.uk
Yixuan Du Drawn by sound rather than the hand, this work is an interpretation of the Zen quote ‘A flower, a world. One leaf one Bodhi tree’ from the Avatamsaka Sutra. My diverse practice spans photography, performance and intense figurative charcoal drawings. I am interested in philosophies that encompass our spiritual interrelationship with the environment we inhabit.
Sound Drawing Ink, 2018 y.du0220171@arts.ac.uk
Lucy George Following the flight of the insect pollinators. Investigating the plight of these pollinators. Drawing from the surface into space.
Flight Pencil, charcoal, graphite, paper, rope, wire, string, 2018 l.george0720171@arts.ac.uk
Emma Louise Hollaway In ‘The Nude Sketchbook’, an uncritical and simplified version of art history is presented as a paradigm for learning how to draw. Throughout AGAINST STATIC, this contemporary copybook will be disassembled, carefully copied, and reassembled, to explore its implications for drawing students. My work readdresses the role of copying as a method of experiential learning and its relevance to the contemporary drawing practitioner. I am an art historian and use my drawing practice the examine the implications of gender and the institution in the contemporary art world.
Equipping Artists with Everything They Need Reconstructed book, 2018 e.hollaway0420171@arts.ac.uk
Caroline Holt-Wilson I gathered long grass from the uncut field margins of last year’s hay meadows, I then stripped and cut them to length. In Grass Drawing they are boundaryless describing an undefined space in a permanent state of tension. My practice attempts to articulate the spatial sense of absence, time and movement. I live and work in South Wales.
Grass Drawing. 50cm Grass stalks and glue, 2017-2018 c.holt-wilson0320161@arts.ac.uk
Glynis Lamond Power Lines was inspired by a visit to the raw, untouristic city of Cluj in Transylvania and focuses on the unnoticed in the familiar everyday environment; things that often go unseen and taken for granted by society. My work examines the historical nature of our yesterdays juxtaposed with the present-day and prompts the viewer to reflect on the past in the present, and the everyday. Glynis studied BA Hons in Fine-Art (Painting) at Loughborough College of Art and Design and Scenic Art at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Power Lines Newspaper (1975 to present day), masking tape, pattern paper, Indian ink, charcoal, 2017 g.lamond0820161@arts.ac.uk
Sepideh Khalili ‘Misplaced in Memory’ is a reflection of the contradiction concept between places where I had an experience of living in. I aim to refer to my memory collection of different moments of my life as an immigrant; in order to intrepid the contrasting components between completely different situations. My practice reflects the exploration of my cultural origins towards finding inner harmony. My drawings follow a very personal experience of displacement which creates a sense of missing ambience that I am trying to address through drawing. I am an architect/urban designer who is trying to shift her direction towards the art world.
Misplaced in Memory MDF, image projection, 2018 s.khalili0620171@arts.ac.uk
Jo Lane While ‘force fields’ are part of a scientific electromagnetic theory, that react in proximity only, there are human ones that transcend logic or electromagnetic rules. These live on the tenuous yet strong threads of human ability to think and feel across the ether. My work always includes tendrils or lines, often hair, and attempts to make visual the unseen nature of thought. As an artist from Melbourne, Australia I have come to the other side of the world, London, to study my Masters.
Force Field (energy drawings) Static energy, humans, video, photography, ink and pencil 2018 j.lane0420171@arts.ac.uk
Kath Lovett By drawing with tape on the floor, ‘Anti-squeak, Anti-Rattle’ attempts to muffle sounds and trace the marks of movement up and down a busy walkway. It stems from fifteen years of working as a teacher and telling students not to run or talk in the corridor. Kath’s work examines how our society has rules which are policed by popular culture and throwaway comments.
Anti-squeak, Anti-Rattle Sound muffling tape, 2018 k.lovett0720171@arts.ac.uk
Denise Poote Women on-the-move were invited to rest still for a pinhole photographic portrait in a local park. Etched drawings on sheet film and acetate are made in total darkness whilst each of the film sheets is handprocessed using traditional darkroom methods. This new work tests and extends the contexts of making and participation across artist, artwork and audience. Current research is centred around the relationship of a deeply personal embodied drawing practice and how to share this experiential knowledge. Denise is fine art trained and lives and works on the South Coast, UK.
To You, To Me (Christina) Photographic print on paper, 5x4 sheet film, acetate, 2018 d.poote0620171@arts.ac.uk
Juan Sanchez Sabogal Portraiture is a way of recalling my models, of making them present in a world that does not allow them to generate different connections. Making new relationships with people of different ages, thoughts, and cultures is part of my way of seeing drawing as a social process. My portraits tell a story, which can be perceived on the skin. They are real, raw, and at the same time, not static at all. I feel indebted to my sitters for allowing me to draw them and I want to honour them. Consequently, I seek an experience of renewal.
“Good Ol’ Benjamin” Charcoal Powder on paper, 2018 j.sanchezsabogal0420171@arts. ac.uk
Ellis Scheer Though I usually work with still images, with ‘Bingewatch’, I aimed to go against the static to reflect upon the act of watching television and on its fastpaced, superficial content. In my practice I use drawing as a tool to question what it is that makes an image filmic, using frozen movie frames and referring to the fleetingness of their cinematic origin. As part of a generation that binge-watches television series, I’m fascinated by the screens we look at all day and the fictional worlds they offer access into.
Binge-watch Self-adhesive window film and TV monitor, 2018 e.scheer0720171@arts.ac.uk
Charmaine Watkiss Infinity is a meditation on repetition, a drawing through time and space. Time and the universe are entities which are constantly moving, thus against static. My work is about mapping history on the body through life sized drawings. I use myself as a reference, alluding to self portraiture while using the figure as a way of transmitting and reworking ideas around history and identity. I have spent the last 20 years working as a digital designer, the Drawing MA has given me the much needed time to focus on and develop my practice.
Infinity Looped video, 2017 c.watkiss0520161@arts.ac.uk
Amber Yin In this drawing, I explored my relationship with textile. I work with textile a lot, I like to combine textile-making into my drawing. For me, the material of textile carries a lot of meanings, it is a way of communication and self-therapy in a very feminine way, I use textile in my work to explore my identity and my spiritual journey through making with hands.
Self Portrait Mixed media on paper, 2018 a.yin0420171@arts.ac.uk
Against / in opposition to. in anticipation of and preparation for (a problem or difficulty). in conceptual contrast to. in or into physical contact with (something), so as to be supported by or collide with it.
/ Static
lacking in movement, action, or change, especially in an undesirable or uninteresting way. concerned with bodies at rest or forces in equilibrium. crackling or hissing noises on a telephone, radio, or other telecommunication system.
Brochure design | Charmaine Watkiss