During LEGACY and during its critique and feedback, I have been told by various people that seeing me drawing in that video I made was interesting and people would like to see more of it. With the support and indications of tutor JH, I explored some artists doing performance drawing, or drawing as performance, or using the act of drawing as part of their process. I describe this part of my project as
the evolution process
I started of course with a classic and the master of performance drawing: Jackson Pollock, here in the video by Hans Namuth. Points to notice:
he does not work from previous drawings or sketches
he is considered the “artist in action”
he likes to work on large canvasses on the floor
I noticed his own research and contextualisation as comparing his work to the Indians sand painters of the West
for him, his work is a natural growth out of a need to express his feelings instead of illustrating them
the technique is only a means
his practice is no accident: he can control the flow of paint!
paintings have a life of their own
once analysed, his chaos is no chaos at all: it’s fractally perfect, following nature’s rhythms
These points alone made me consider a lot my own approach, my need to express what I have inside, as a sort of compulsion almost, but without the need to illustrate in details what goes on inside. In “own sense”, the artist in action and the mark itself are ONE.
I went on looking at CATHÈDRALE by Caroline Denervaud as in the following link: MOVIE . I found it moving, in a very French kinda way. Minimalist, intense, beautiful, delicate.
When I looked at Greig Burgoyne I felt I haven’t seen such a commitment to exploration in quite a while, him and his emotional relationship with the elements and material. Here following are two videos I find extremely interesting and involving:
I have then looked at Anastasia Faiella performance which is really more of a dance. I like the layering and the noise and I’m more interested in the medium used: is it ink? what kind of ink? Is she using a brush? Hands? Body?
This following is from her website: The world I wish to create through my art is a world that one can enter and experience that is different from the world that he/she knows as an everyday life or routine. The work I create as an artist creates a journey for the viewer to experience a world that provokes thoughts about body, movement, sound, beauty, painting. My work asks the viewer to reflect upon notions and constructs of Beauty and the female body. I invite the viewer to experience the live event of performance, and think about how it is captured and interpreted. By incorporating my own body into my work as a performance artist, I emphasize the important presence of women’s bodies in an everyday practice. I believe that in my performance work I am addressing Issues that investigate limits in painting; expanding the role of the artist and the importance of the female body as producer within the painterly arena; the difficulties of the female body as visible and the ways I undermine/refuse a fully desiring gaze. It is the power of what we hold within our bodies and how we express that power that I find to be a very interesting aspect to explore. I am interested in the way that painting might limit or circumscribe performance and ways that performance expands the boundary of painting.
I encountered Emma Fält and especially her on loneliness and contact : togetherness in drawing (here) : this is really where more of the psychoanalytical exploration meets art meets performance. As much as I liked what I saw and understand the reasoning behind, I felt a desire to detach myself from a similar experience and allow the spectators only to see me, but not interact with me during the drawing.
Often the name of Ram Samocha came up: I will look at him in details and will write more on performance drawing in following posts. I will also include in later post full bibliography / referencing of what I have been reading, and my thoughts and potential conclusions.