DRAWN TO THE WALL V

JUNDT

ART

SEPTEMBER

6 - OCTOBER

GONZAGA SPOKANE,

MUSEUM

UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON

12;

2013

lilt's SO fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas."

- Paul Cezanne

In the end, they're of white

paint.

Museum,

just sections of wall.

Completely

ordinary,

these five sections

gallery space and to support they briefly exhibit. handful

become

Another

spaces are - at 8 by 111/2 Casstevens,

The Drawn

toothy,"

digs through

feet - a lot of artistic

tabulae

qualities

rasae for an exceptional are being evaluated

by a

says one, smoothing

his bag of drawing

supplies for whatever

seems intimidated, to fill.

her hand across a pale surface.

although

will make the

the monolithic

It's late April and the artists, still have plenty

canvas Margot

of time to

gallery that invited

12, offers a challenge

images up on their assigned at which

time the artists

painstakingly

how Dine reacts to a potentially

but

The show will

will paint over the work they've

disastrous

can't pay for his works to be shipped.

recreate

- not only in capturing

that is simple,

piece of wall.

to the Wall series comes from the 1995 short documentary

him to exhibit

various birds) but in showing

6 to October

blank state.

on the Walls. The film observes

mesmerizing

drawable

"real estate"

from September

the wall to its original

for the Drawn

and an assistant

used to mark

and dream.

be open to the public for just over a month,

Portrait

At the Jundt Art

all are normally

Roger Ralston, and Carl Richardson,

not easy: the group has two weeks to get their

The impetus

utilitarian.

orks of ar . But every three years or so

canvasses - marvelous

best line. So far, nobody

to the Wall V exhibit,

done and return

some plaster, a coat

of artists.

Elaine Green, Kurt Madison,

plan, experiment,

completely

of moveable hung

And right now, their

"It's surprisingly 1

Some plywood,

his drawings

the finished

right

work

the human struggle to get the job done.

problem:

the German

With only six days to work,

on the gallery's

(enormous

Jim Dine: A Selj-

walls.

self-portraits,

The documentary the sweeping

Dine is

lines of

The work is as taxing physically

as it

is emotionally.

Dine goes through

knee pads and finger bandages,

a wash of Pepsi to get the charcoal gallery

lines properly

space, but only for a short six weeks.

blended.

uses broom

handles,

bread, and even

The works fill the walls of the Ludwigsburg

In the end, as will happen

Wall show and the four before it, the work was all painted

with the current

Drawn to the

over and only exists now in memory

and in

film.

The Drawn to the Wall artists more time to prepare. more about orking

"You'll

Five months

the exhibit,

than

before,

both in terms

Dine in that they collectively

the artists

met with

of its philosophy

Interim

have less space to fill and

Director

and its practicalities.

karen Kaiser to learn

Kaiser explains

how the

process should go:

have two weeks.

here you're

You'll come in and fight

going to work,"

ill have their own studio closed to the public

she smiles,

half-kidding.

during

the two weeks that you'll As I<aiser continues

work spaces, Sharpies and paper go around

artists are recording the exhibit's

their signatures

art doesn't

over the spaces "Everyone

space, as it were, and the galleries will be

but it's by no means private." artist's

are luckier

for the show's

be working,

to talk about the the room. brochure,

exist yet. The work will be intensely

The since

physical,

aiser warns: there will be three ladders to share, but the artists are elcome to bring in their own, or even scaffolding can also bring in additional materials

and while

work lighting.

the concept

aint or even sculptural . elcome at the party. are nearly impossible estions at this point.

elements,

if it helps.

The discussion

They

moves to

of Drawn to the Wall allows

for

it's clear one group of media isn't

"No oil paints or pastels," says Kaiser. "They to fully paint over." The artists start volleying 2

"Has anyone used silverpoint?"

asks Green, who recently took a

class on Drawing Materials and Tools in the 17th Century at the British Museum. Madison extols the virtues of General's Chunks, actual hunks of charcoal that he says give "an intense depth of color." "How about airbrushing?" asks someone else. "Those are all okay," says Kaiser. "Anything that can be physically removed or sanded down should be okay."

The conversation turns to a discussion of the walls themselves, and what they're like to work with.

"How dense is the wall?"

wonders Casstevens, her eyes bright with tactile possibilities. "It's plywood covered in wall board," says Kaiser. "You won't need to drill it but you can't push pin it either." This is an important point as in previous years some artists have used three-dimensional methods to "draw" on the surface with string and fabric. Ralston

3

comments that he's not used to drawing in such a large scale; Kaiser responds that there's nothing that says you have to use the entire space. Richardson asks, "Has anyone laid the wall down to draw on it?"

As the artists ponder the logistics of this, Kaiser explains that it's next to impossible - each wall is more or less anchored with three feet of sand inside. They can be moved - with difficulty - but not laid down.

And then the best question of the meeting suddenly comes from Green, who's decided to go back to media and materials:

"Are live creatures allowed?"

There is laughter but Green isn't entirely kidding.

She talks about the kinds of tracks a small animal might make, or how it could be part of an installation if caged. "We've never had anyone do that before," says Kaiser. While Green's fellow artists laugh and suggest what kinds of live animals might best "draw" on the walls, I<aiser makes the hard decision: animals.

no

s the artists walk through artists,

many of whom

University, actually

the museum's

are on the faculty

know one another.

Falls Community ribbing

on Drawn

It helps that most of the

College and Eastern Washington

and some excitement

- to test the materials

aiser says that the process of working

alone.

at Spokane

There is good-natured

draw on the walls - discreetly

like summer

gallery space, the mood is convivial.

as a few of the artists

they might be using five months

to the Wall fosters

from now.

a real sense of camaraderie.

camp," she says. "The space is closed to the public but the artists are definitely

You learn to share equipment

hat's interesting

is that nobody

and material,

and to bounce

seems intimidated,

or by the size of the walls themselves.

either

the other

of working

and when they're

walls in the gallery

as the portentous

not working

ideas off one another."

by the prospect

The walls are enormous,

"It's

standing

they suggest

dimensions

under deadline apart from

nothing

of the monoliths

so much

from 2001: A

Space Odyssey.

"They

might

not be intimidated

ask her about

it privately

now,"

later.

I<aiser admits

"But that

often

when they come in to work for the first time." the last few days in particular planned

images

don't

work

comes

and

I

later

She says that

can be extremely out

when

stressful

materials

as

sometimes

prove recalcitrant.

It's an incredible physical

work

amount

for something

of planning, that

and effort,

isn't intended

and hard

to last.

The

artists will, at the end of the show, remove the images they've so carefully be doing intentional 4

crafted.

The sanding

as part of the exhibit's erasure.

and painting contract

But the erasure

will

over they'll be an act of

is far from total.

In the

路 end, the experience of Drawn to the Wall, both for the artists and the observers, lives on, whether it's in a callus from rubbing charcoal to create big shadows or a photo of the resulting art snapped on someone's iPhone.

Although the art doesn't "last" in the physical, historical sense, it will persist in memory, in

conversations, in photography, perhaps even film. Drawn to the Wall V, for all its "leave no trace" end philosophy, will definitely leave something behind. What will it be?

Sheri Boggs Guest Essayist, 2013

5

iMAGES~ COVER:

Gina Freuen (Contemporary American), Self-Portrait Obscured, 2007, DTTW III, Charcoal, wood & pit fired stoneware, printed & waxed mulberry paper 1. Ken Yuhasz (Contemporary American), Odd Planets, 2007, DTTW III, Latex paint, found objects, and neon and argon filled tubing 2. Allie Kurtz Vogt (Contemporary American), Altar: There Is a Time and Season for Every Purpose, 2004, DTTW II, Pastel and charcoal with attachments 3. Bradd Skubinna (Contemporary American), Shot Through, 2004, DTTW II, Plastic with plastic tape 4. Richard Schindler (Contemporary American), In Memory of a Free Spirit, 2007, DTTW III, Sumi ink, walnut ink, charcoal, and graphite with handmade paper 5. Scott Kolbo (Contemporary American), Jeremiah at the Mall: The Praphecy of God's Impending Judgment Against the City on the Hill, 2004, DTTW II, Acrylic, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, plywood and photocopies

This publication

is funded by the Jundt Art Museum's Annual Campaign, 2012-13

漏Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington

99258-0001