200 x 140 cm
Pen on Card
Archives for posts with tag: Cathedral Studios
Here I broke with recent tradition and drew onto a large sheet of paper. Felt tip pens allow a more precise, clear line than chalk. Looking close, the drawing is full of human error and inaccuracy. This makes it feel somehow alive, less rigid and perfect than a digitally rendered image.
The paper used is 274 x 290 cm. I want to work as large as possible. Please get in touch if you have a spare gable wall or expanse of concrete you’d like me to draw on..
The drawing in my space in Cathedral Studios:
Detail of the centre
I set myself the task of having a couple of new drawings ready for Culture Night Belfast on Friday last week. We had an open evening at Cathedral Studios. This is as far as I got with the drawings, the one on the left needs more work.
Double E sculpture with analogue metronome
Studio Space
Drawing I
Drawing II
These wall drawings were rendered with pencil. It operates in a more subtle, elusive register than chalk. The viewer is forced to look closer and from different angles to discern the complete shape of the work.
I experiment with the inclusion of resonant objects in keeping with drawing. For example, in a recent studio critique I included two small pieces of metal, one a triangle and one a parallelogram placed on the floor. Their forms informed these drawings. I interrogate chosen objects and their exact placement in their environment.
Drawings are ephemeral, planned to be made, rigorously documented and painted over. I do not want to overly prescribe how the works should or should not be read. The work is richer if it invites multiple interpretations. Subtle clues can be given but I find strength through ‘undecidability.’
The photograph below shows two recent wall drawings, created in the weeks leading up to culture night Belfast on the 18th of September. A dark blue bass drum has been placed in front of them.
Drawing I
Drawing II
I also made a sound performance piece with Michael O’Halloran that evening, he using guitar and a loop station, and I playing bass drum, hi-hat and snare drum. The rules that governed this were as follows:
‘Loop station Performance’
- The guitar will be playing within a loop that will repeat after a predetermined amount of time.
- The tempo and the key will be fixed, and notes will be improvised within a recurring pattern.
- The pattern will be manipulated with digital effects, but always manipulated as a whole.
- The drums will follow the pattern established by the guitar.
- The performance will last ten minutes.
The performance was intended to augment/activate the drawings in a thoughtful way. Just as they were produced by a process of repetition and layering of individual component shapes, the idea was to layer and repeat notes to eventually achieve a complex build up of sound.
After culture night I decided to leave the bass drum in front of the drawings. The drum’s form is sculptural, the circular shape echoes the shape of the drawing. It is a resonant object both sonically and symbolically.
This is another summer drawing, created with a pre determined set of rules. White chalk on black wall continues the mathematical, scientific blackboard aesthetic of recent work. The form is composed of sharp angled triangles repeated to form a curved whole. Evidence of mistakes and revisions contribute to a sense of the organic, the working out of ideas.
I’ve been working directly on to the walls of my studio space in Cathedral Studios. It has been a liberating and exciting process. I’ve continued the marks on to the floor and the ceiling, which encourages the viewer to feel that they are ‘in’ the work; to relate to the scale of the work with the size of their own body. The work has gradually grown over the past few weeks. Part of the feeling of freedom comes from the awareness that the piece can only be transitory. Ultimately it will be painted over, only to exist in photographs and memory.
This makes documentation especially important, though it is wholly inadequate in terms of experiencing the work. I have often thought this when looking at installation or performance art. Immediacy, sensory stimulation and interaction cannot be translated into a two dimensional image or video.
Walls:
Ceiling
Floor
John Macormac 