DR AW ING PA PE R # 1
AN INTRODUCTION I began thinking about producing a drawing focussed publication several months ago during a particularly productive period of making my own work and seeing others around me working on their own interesting drawings. I considered how it would be possible to curate a diverse selection of drawings from amongst my talented network of creative friends and acquaintances. The work in this first issue is not a response to any particular theme, they are more like snapshots into each artists current practices and interests. For some of the contributors, drawing is their sole focus and obsession, others produce drawings as a starting point or even a distraction from their usual working practice. Many of the drawings challenge the idea ‘what is a drawing?’ We have examples of collage, digital and three dimensional / sculptural based works, alongside more traditional pencil on paper based drawings. When does a drawing become something else? Should we be constrained by conventional approaches like medium and format? I think for myself and many others it’s all about the immediacy. Drawing can be a free flowing and direct way of expressing ourselves and ideas, whether they are conceptual, figurative or abstract, or self-indulgent, tangential detours or excursions.
I don’t profess to be an authority on drawing; I see myself as facilitator and initiator possessing the skills to present the content professionally. Of course I have opinions and preferences but on the theoretical side I will leave you in the capable hands of my contributors and associates. In this issue Jon Barraclough provides us with an interesting text looking at collaborative ‘drawing conversations’. I would like the paper to act as a catalyst – on a local level here in Liverpool at least – in establishing a collective of artists who start running their own drawing based projects and activities. I hope Drawing Paper inspires you to get involved. In future issues I would like to invite others to lead on curating, establishing themes and providing written responses. If you have any suggestions or comments, please get in touch and be sure to checkout the website for more information. Enjoy. Mike Carney.
Drawing Paper is a freely distributed, not for profit publication. It is funded and made possible solely by its contributors. Here’s the deal – each artist pays an equal amount for their page which in total covers the production costs. With this model it is possible to be liberated from the tedious rigours of funding applications and criteria guidelines, enabling us to do things on our own terms – Drawing Paper is a logo and advert free zone. Sincere thanks to all contributors for your support, encouragement and enthusiasm. Special thanks to Jon Barraclough for your input and inspiration. All artworks copyright © The Artists. Published in May 2010. Conceived and designed in Liverpool, UK by Mike Carney and Jon Barraclough. www.mikesstudio.co.uk www.jonbarraclough.co.uk Printed in a limited edition of 3000 by Sharman and Company, Peterborough. www.drawing-paper.tumblr.com
DRAWING CONVERSATIONS In DELUGE 2611091712 (opposite) a drawing was created simultaneously by three artists, ( Jon Barraclough, Mike Carney and Alexandra Wolkowicz) onto a large sheet of paper taped to a table that can be accessed from all sides. This way it’s possible to swap places and to see the image in different orientations and to work over and onto each other’s marks. The theme DELUGE was in response to the diabolical weather outside and to a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci of the same name. I’m interested in the authorship and ownership of creativity. Or rather, I’m interested in how we might break down ideas of singular creation and possession of works of art. Drawing offers a primary, stripped down practice that we are all capable of in some form or other. I’ve recently been having drawing conversations with others in an attempt to explore what it is to collaborate in an intimate space: space that also reveals process and produces evidence, or artefact as an outcome. Spoken conversations can be recorded and played back but knowing that a recording is being made often effects what we say and how we respond. Authorship of the spoken word is mostly indisputable – in law this can mean the difference between freedom or imprisonment. A combined drawing activity can either reveal or obscure an original mark or gesture. In parallel with music in ensemble, drawing can fuse together marks, lines, phrases and textures into a combined experience. It can be predetermined or improvisational. The result is unrepeatable and living process in relationship is revealed. Jon Barraclough
JON BARRACLOUGH, MIKE CARNEY, ALEX ANDRA WOLKOWICZ Drawing Conversation 3 DELUGE: 2611091712 AW JB MC. (1150 x 875mm). Pencil and graphite stick. 2009
TOPIA GOULD Untitled. (300 x 400mm). Mixed pens and pencils on paper. 2010
SARAH MCKEVITT A Place To Hide. (297 x 420mm). Pencil on paper. 2010
L AURA ROBERTSON Fig. 1. (297 x 420mm). Pen, pencil, photocopy, highlighter. 2010
EMILY SPEED Shelter. (400mm tall). Plasticine and ink, pencil and acrylic on card. 2010
MADELINE HALL LEFT Untitled. (220 x 120mm). Mixed media on wood. 2010 rIGHT Untitled. (210 x 297mm). Mixed media on paper. 2010
HAMISH MCL AIN It’s got to be Fresh. (420 x 297mm). Oil on paper. 2009
BERNADETTE O’TOOLE Folding Space Like Paper. (Dimensions variable). Pen on paper. 2009
NATALIE HUGHES 24.006. (198 x 170mm). Collage. 2010
HARRY L AWSON Thought Experiment (Stonehenge). Photoshop. 2010
MIKE CARNEY Untitled. (216 x 239mm). Brown ink pen onto found board. 2009
RICHARD PROFFITT Untitled (Excerpt from “Stadt Moers 1996”). (210 x 297mm). Photocopy. 2010
HENRY FINNEY rIGHT Roundabouts. (210 x 250mm). Acrylic and charcoal on board. 2010 BELOW Swings. (277 x 210mm). Acrylic and charcoal on board. 2010
JAMES QUIN The Watched Cannot see the Watcher. (130 x 200mm). Graphite on found book back. (First edition readers digest). 2010
JEMMA EGAN Mr Wonder Dog. (180 x 210mm). Swiss-made coloured pencil on red Swiss chocolate wrapper. 2009
BAPTISTE CROZE You’ll Never Walk Alone (preliminary drawings). (Dimensions variable). Blue and grey graphite transfers. 2010
FLIS MITCHELL Jaws 2 ReDrawn. (Dimensions variable). Pencil on paper. 2010
SAM VENABLES Gibo. (297 x 420mm). Collage, ink, pencil. 2010
AL AN WILLIAMS people make me sick. (297 x 210mm). Ink and tea on paper. 2010
JON BARRACLOUGH CATBIRD. (450 x 300mm). Drawn onto photograph. 2009
JON BARRACLOUGH “CATBIRD is a drawn-onto photograph that was taken in New York City. This Catbird had been collected after a bird-building collision during migration. I’ve always felt that photographs can seem ‘frozen’ in time. I’d been doing quite abstract drawings from an idea that depicts bird collisions with windows in city buildings. This is an attempt to bring to life the drama of such a collision using marks that could animate the moment; to add depth and movement to the image. The photo is from a collaborative project with Alexandra Wolkowicz.” Jon Barraclough studied Fine Art Media at Bradford and Graphic Art at Newcastle before working as a photographer and designer in New York and London in the 1980s. Working in the music, film and fashion industries, he was a founder member of the Unknown Studio in London, UK and exhibited drawings in group and solo shows there. He began teaching at Newcastle and Liverpool Schools of Art in the early 90s then became Head of School at Liverpool between 1991 and 1996. He went on to become Creative Director at Nonconform a visual communications consultancy in Liverpool and has exhibited drawings, paintings, film and photography in touring group shows and solo shows in the UK. In 2008 he became a research Associate at Liverpool School of Art and established Jon Barraclough and Company, a collaborative arts and consulting practice based in Liverpool. www.jonbarraclough.co.uk MIKE CARNEY “When I produce a drawing I embark on a sort of meditative journey – a focussed process out of which something emerges out of nothing. I have no pre-conceived idea about what the final form might be. I just establish some simple rules and constraints – the type of pen, colour of ink, the size and direction of the marks – and the rest is left to chance. The resulting intricate forms have a meandering, rhythmic and organic quality which I enjoy.” Mike is a Liverpool based graphic designer and artist, lover of repetitive beats and studio member of The royal Standard. recent exhibitions include the group show DRAWN IN at The Lost Soul and Stranger Service Station project space, Liverpool, May 2009. www.mikesstudio.co.uk BAPTISTE CROZE “ You’ll Never Walk Alone is a project based on photos collected from the internet for my research into Liverpool football supporters tatoo’s. The drawings have been transfered onto paper using graphite paper; I wanted to isolate them and place emphasis on the tatoo designs. These preliminary ideas will inform further drawings that I will be carving into a white cube, creating a ‘Liverpool White Cube’.”
MADELINE HALL “The main body of my work at present explores narrative and the way time, memories and events are processed and represented. I have developed a visual language which often springs from unexpected encounters and random trains of thought. Whilst approaching the drawings with a certain amount of abandonment, I also try to construct a dialogue with the viewer through the use of juxtaposition of imagery taken from different sources and time periods, suggesting the sense of the passage of time. Some of the material used in the drawings, including images of architecture and objects, are appropriated from old magazines, books and catalogues, some of which date back to the 1930s. The presentation of the work, which is normally in a series, enhances the theme of narrative, hinting at a sequence of events for the viewer to untangle. Ultimately, I strive to produce enigmatic landscapes that blur the lines between real and imaginary; past and present; and intuition and reason. I am currently based in Liverpool and have a studio space at The royal Standard, an artist led gallery, project space and social workspace.” mads_129@hotmail.com www.maddihall.blogspot.com NATALIE HUGHES ‘So it goes’ (Kurt Vonnegut) ‘If the accident will’ (Kurt Vonnegut) ‘I paint what I can’t paint and say what I can’t say...’ (Paul rotterdam) “Drawing is a way of bringing the real and the imaginary together, in doing so new conclusions can be made about the way we see things. My work, which comprises of drawing and stopstart animation, explores the notion of a private world. A world that floats between the real and the surreal, something which can be so vivid and clear, yet in real-terms, nothing at all.” natmarie1@hotmail.com
www.jemmaegan.com HENRY FINNEY For Henry Finney the simple act of drawing is what makes it so liberating. The places portrayed in his work have taken inspiration from a variety of sources like everyday observations, memory, cinematography and music. The amount of energy that someone can put into a picture with such simple tools is what also inspires him to keep his work lucid. “I didn’t mean tha’, he said. It’s not the fact tha’ they went to fuckin’ art school that’s wrong with them. It’s – ( Jimmy was struggling.) – more to do with – (now he had something.) – the way their stuff, their songs like, are aimed at gits like themselves. Wankers with funny haircuts. An’ rich das. An’ fuck all else to do all day ‘cept prikin’ around with synths.” roddy Doyle, The Commitments henryf@hotmail.co.uk
Hamish McLain is an artist based in Liverpool. He has a studio at The royal Standard where he was a co-director for two years. Earlier this year he exhibited as part of the BamBamBam series of solo shows at The royal Standard. In April / May this year he initiated a four person show ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ as part of Global Studio at The Bluecoat, Liverpool. Engaging with themes of place and experience, the artists explored connections between working methods, in video, text, sculpture, painting and photography. Previous exhibitions include: Shifting Perspectives, Cloisters, London, April 2009. Pencil It In, red Wire, May Liverpool 2009. Fear and Optimism: Liverpool in the 21st Century, Workstation, February, Sheffield 2009. www.hamishmclain.com FLIS MITCHELL “The Jaws 2 ReDrawn project is an exploration of the differences between the processes of fine art drawing and main stream film making. I am making a drawing based on each frame of the 7000 frames from the Jaws 2 theatrical trailer. I can dispense with continuity and superfluous imagery and create a drawing that extracts new meaning from each frame. The new drawings will be animated and united with the original soundtrack to produce a short drawn animation that reveals the latent narrative within Jaws 2. The project will be completed when I have redrawn the complete Jaws 2 film. I welcome people contacting me to discuss the project or drawing in general.” flismitchell@mail.com
HARRY L AWSON “It has always been interesting to me to try and imagine something that has never happened and probably will never happen. Much like a wild animal, some things may not be possible for a human to understand; there may be a logic more fundamental than maths, physics, religion, astrology, whatever. When considering what it might look like if gravity was to suddenly reverse it is difficult to know whether matter itself would break up initially; if matters mass was to become negative, perhaps the Universe or Multiverse would instantly become awash with the most fundamental objects and enter a truly steady state.” ‘This Matter’ opens at The royal Standard, Liverpool on 21 May 2010. www. thismatterblog.blogspot.com
bap.croze@gmail.com JEMMA EGAN Swiss, Swissness, Swissishness, Chocolate, Cheese, Dogs, Perfect, Kitsch, Fake, Blue, Swiss-made, Stationary, Swiss, Mountains, Dogs, Mountain dogs, Chocolate dogs, Chocolate, Cheese, Chocolate, Mountains, Swiss-made, Chocolate, Swissed.
HAMISH MCL AIN “Drawing is funny for me. Sometimes I know exactly when I’m doing a drawing, and other times it feels more like I’m making a painting. Drawing is to do with a directness, an almost no-going-back state, whereas painting is more about going backwards and forwards in trying to resolve the piece. It doesn’t have to be done in pencil or charcoal to be a drawing – it’s more about how you use the material and your state of mind when making the marks.”
SARAH MCKEVITT “My drawing represents winter days for the lonely with white skys and dull surroundings. The main inspiration for my work is music, lyrics, and the magical way in which they can change moods and atmospheres. The musical inspiration behind this particular drawing is A Place To Hide by The White Lies. Sarah Mckevitt is a Graphic Arts Illustration student at Salford University. Previous exhibition work include collaborative artworks at Font Bar, Oxford road, Manchester and Afflecks Palace, Northern Quarter Manchester. sarahmckevitt@blogspot.com
BERNADETTE O’TOOLE Bernadette O’Toole takes the line as her starting point, line as a prime conceptualisation, describing nothing in itself other than the space between two points and the time it takes to travel from A to B, to create sheets of time, folding the paper in such a way as to house moments that cannot be measured. Bernadette’s most recent drawing installation ‘Folding Space like Paper’ suggests a dystopian landscape edging towards its own destruction. Constructed from A4 sheets of paper (or ‘paper planes’ as O’Toole describes them), covered in meticulously drawn lines that form themselves into hermetically sealed structures, hinting at a minimal architecture and sliding off into what appears to be a desert wasteland. What is striking about this landscape is its uniformity; a grey blanket of constructed possibilities spreads out over the floor of the gallery. These sealed structures that offer no way in or out have in places been trampled underfoot without a thought. O’Toole draws attention to the fragility of our constructs, to the impermanence of things. Bernadette O’Toole has a studio at the Bluecoat Liverpool where she is currently showing a series of new paintings in the Global Studio exhibition inspired by her most recent drawing installations. In May 2009 O’Toole curated DRAWN IN, an exhibition exploring the possibilities of drawing today, shown at The Lost Soul and Stranger Service Station project space. Bernadette is currently working towards DRAWN IN TWO to be held at the same venue later this year. Her most frequently listened to piece of music is Shostakovich piano concerto No. 2 in F Major. bernadetteo@tiscali.co.uk www.bernadetteo.tumblr.com RICHARD PROFFITT Ancient civilisations, the American underground and slacker culture, ghost-towns, urban myths and legends, folklore, Krautrock music of the 1960s and 70s, post-apocalyptic sci-fi films, second hand occult imagery, mined memories of half-arsed childhood den making, suburban wasteland and classroom humour. These elements become intertwined and mangled, producing work that is sometimes absurd, funny, dark or mysterious. The work will often become realised as make-shift ceremonial relics and ephemera or ramshackle ritualistic hang-outs. stopcomingtomyhouse@hotmail.com www.richardproffitt.blogspot.com
JAMES QUIN James Quin’s drawing The Watched Cannot see the Watcher is the preliminary drawing for a series of 300 drawings on found book backs entitled Repetition currently showing in the Global Studio exhibition at the Bluecoat gallery, Liverpool. Each drawing is made from memory based on the previous drawing, the process repeated 300 times over a nine month period. The process seeks through the act of repetition to uncover ‘the multiple readings’ of the image and to make visible the subjectivity of memory and the marking of time. The variations / flaws of the image, act as tiny glitches in the attempt to remember. “In the act of drawing there is a kind of necessary amnesia. One looks at the subject, studies it intently for a few moments, remembers a particular set of relationships for a split second, and transfers that memory of seeing, remembering, forgetting. repeat. See. remember. Forget. Erase. repeat. See. remember. Forget. Erase. Alter. repeat”. James Quin has a studio at the Bluecoat and is currently Associate lecturer at Leeds College of Art and Design. Quin has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been shortlisted for the Liverpool Art Prize 2010 and nominated for the Northern Art Prize 2010. His favourite film is Tarkovsky’s Solaris. qjames@tiscali.co.uk www.jamesquin.tumblr.com www.jamesquin.co.uk L AURA ROBERTSON The long Shrine of hunger. Window spectra Bleak on the retina. It is the hunger Humbles the eye-beam. The slime’s Great Orme. Stranded, immense Mollusk! A carapace of stone, cruciform, Sculpted, as are all God’s creatures, by hunger. Extract from Wolfwatching by Ted Hughes Selected recent shows include: All Change, rogue Artists Studios, Manchester, June 2009; SALE, The royal Standard, Liverpool, January 2009; Artists Book Fair Liverpool, Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool, November 2008. lacrobertson@hotmail.com EMILY SPEED Emily Speed’s work is an ongoing exploration into the relationships between architecture and human anatomy: the body as a building that houses the mind. Particularly drawn to the more uninhabited spaces of buildings; corners, recesses, passageways, stairways, entrances and exits, Speed constructs models of sorts; a kind of immaterial architecture that plots out her personal space. Her work is also concerned with the enduring sense of memory and / or personal identity that is often embedded into built space. Emily is currently the Feiweles Trust bursary holder at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where she will exhibit her work in 2011 for her first solo exhibition, she will also exhibit this autumn at Showreel Project in Milan. Emily has recently taken part in the A Curriculum residency at A Foundation in Liverpool and has also completed residencies at Salzamt Atelierhaus, Linz with Liverpool Biennial, Women’s Studio Workshop, New York State and Hospitalfield Trust, Arbroath. www.emilyspeed.co.uk TOPIA GOULD roxy Topia and Paddy Gould are collaborative artists based in the North West. Their current series of drawings is creating optimistic and humorous images from the joy they take in each other’s bodies. Pattern, colour and surface are important to their visual language. These drawings arose from ideas contained within the series Lovers Collages made on their recent residency in Linz, Austria, where they also made a sculpture, a video and a text based poster that formed a body of work preoccupied with therapeutic possibilities for art. In it, figures from the European shamanic tradition found themselves amongst American popular culture and a British sense of humour. Sometimes in their spare time they like to work with friends on small participatory events that are invite only or confusingly participatory. They tend to find reductive, conceptual art practices rather boring and would prefer to enjoy an ice cream sundae. What a beautiful approach to form! They are about to go to LA to make some fun art and hang out with psychologists. paddygould@ymail.com roxytopia@hotmail.co.uk www.topiagould.wordpress.com
SAM VENABLES Liverpool based Artist Sam Venables provides an A to Z of Highlights and Lowlights. HIGH ASDA, Bowie in Labyrinth, Blimps and Bad Style, Claes Oldenburg, Devo’d, Eine, Fishing for Crabs, Gold Teeth and Gibsonism, Henry Hoover, Ian Stevenson, Junk Stores, Krimskrams and Krang, ]y results Time, Motorcycles and MS Paint, Nineties Dashboards, Overheard in Liverpool, Patrick Brill and The Peter Andre Fan Club circa.1996, Queequeg, rotisserie Chicken, Scalsploitation, Styling Mouse and Smithereens, The royal Standarians, Urban Dictionary, Vauxhall Astra Owners Club, Wayne Szalinski, Ya’ll, Zaam and Zahne. LOW A Buck Fifty, Bean burgers, CBA, Dunhelm Mill, Ear pieces for Mobile Phones, Five o One, Girls wearing hair curlers in town, Home Alone 3, Interform, Jeggins, Krunk Juice, Lucky Lucky Tats, Melon, New Builds, Old Tents, Paramore, QVC craft with Dawn Bibby, reef that tastes like Chicken, Strawberry flavoured anything and Spliffy Jackets, Taco Bell, Use of the word Sozzled, Vemps, Wayne Wonder, X and Y, Zoom on me Nokia. www.sam-venables.com AL AN WILLIAMS “I’m an artist based in liverpool, but I’m getting old and lazy so I mostly just draw these days. I enjoy making and listening to music and I generally don’t enjoy people.” www.alan-williams.co.uk ALEX ANDRA WOLKOWICZ Alexandra Wolkowicz is a Polish / German photographer and artist currently resident in Liverpool UK. Her work explores themes about our relationship with the world and how we share it with each other and other living things. Essentially tactile and documentary, her work springs from her experience with photography, performance, theatre and the creation of unique representations of places, things and histories which move her. She works with still and moving imagery often with the addition of sound. Her intervention with things and situations found is to alter, adjust and reconstruct the familiar in order to create moving, thought-provoking and poetic representations. Her working practice is often collaborative and multidisciplinary choosing to select media appropriate to the aesthetics and content of a particular piece. She has travelled widely and has worked with artists and in residencies in Europe, North America and Asia. www.studiowolkowicz.com KI YOONG Ki Yoong began scribbling long before he could spell his name and tie his shoelaces. His work is explicitly detailed, making it notable for its traditional, realistic aesthetic. The obscurity of his dreams and confronting the uncertainty of reality inspire him the most, providing him with ever-changing, and evolving material. It is evident in Yoong’s drawings that he is particularly interested in the human face, every person he renders delicately shows a different facial expression, which evokes everything from frustration, to serenity and emptiness, to contentment. With little girls wearing skulls for hats and old ladies befriending imaginary bears, his work is synonymous with ambiguous, personal humour, which he attributes to his cynical nature and like-minded friends. Ki is a Virgo. He enjoys long walks, warm summer nights, and looking at frog spawn. kiyoong@hotmail.co.uk
KI YOONG Gomeisa. (590 x 300mm). Pencil on paper. 2010