Drawing.
Journey.
Before photography, drawing and painting were the only means of recording a scene or an image accurately. For this purpose drawing can be extrapolated to include the processes leading up to the production of prints in earlier times.
Now, with the benefit of the photographic discipline, drawing has expanded its application.
It is still of the utmost importance to have a grasp of the fundamentals of good drawing practice, through life drawing and still-life, as this skill underpins much of the creative processes of sculpture and design; however, drawing can be free from the constraints of gravity and so has, some could argue, a more liberated approach to creativity. It also informs the artist as to what they are distorting from reality as it is an education in perspective and correct proportion.
Selected Life Drawings by K Moores. Charcoal and paper 2013.
The concept of Journey as a drawing project is very broad.
The artist Mark Bauer (1975) uses the traditional black and white look of photography to record his journeys to different places, for example, a Sanatorium.
HB Sanatorium Kreuzlingen Schloss Bellevue 1988 Mark Bauer
It is still of the utmost importance to have a grasp of the fundamentals of good drawing practice, through life drawing and still-life, as this skill underpins much of the creative processes of sculpture and design; however, drawing can be free from the constraints of gravity and so has, some could argue, a more liberated approach to creativity. It also informs the artist as to what they are distorting from reality as it is an education in perspective and correct proportion.
The concept of Journey as a drawing project is very broad.
The artist Mark Bauer (1975) uses the traditional black and white look of photography to record his journeys to different places, for example, a Sanatorium.
pencil and paper
I cannot view the destination of a journey as being the same as a journey; this being a necessity for any human wishing to visit anywhere. In the past I have traveled with an unusual companion, a toy of my daughter's, in order that she might feel connected to my having traveled. These inanimate teddy bears took on a superb preciousness whilst traveling, such was my concern at losing them, and their appearance in souvenir photographs lend a particular sense of the personal to otherwise generic scenes.
Patch the Teddy in the Florian Coffee Shop, St Mark's Square, Venice. April 2013.
Green Bear on the Isle of Wight Ferry for Cowes week 2013
Another way of approaching this concept of taking items for a journey is in the most basic; what do we normally take on a journey but our suitcase? The personal items are contained within the suitcase (unless they are as precious as the above and must be kept in hand luggage all the time).
Komi Tanaka took a suitcase on a journey to Rome and photographed the suitcase in various locales. These pictures, referenced to a tourist map, and displayed alongside the adventurous suitcase, formed an installation at Frieze 2013.
Komi Tanaka We Found Something When We Lost Other Things 2012 unannounced action
The return address on the suitcase as it was left on corners in Rome was always the gallery where Komi Tanaka was exhibiting, hence it was also advertising for his show and a commercial endeavour. I would have been interested in the record of interactions of the public with this 'abandoned' suitcase in these days of terror alerts and fears of abandoned bags. This is why I prefer to travel with a teddy bear.
Drawing can always, an this is the most important factor besides recording things for posterity, enter the realms of the unreal. The abstract, the multi-coloured, the distorted; all of these are the everyday of contemporary drawing. Colour is the main feature in the works of Chadwick Rantanen (American 1981), for example, whether he is working in sculpture, installation or drawing.
Multicoloured drawing by Chadwick Rantanen above carbon fibre Loop. Frieze 2013.
Drawings from the imagination appeal to my aesthetic as photo quality reproductions of a scene seem to be outdated.
An imagined journey, with similarities to the disbelieved journey of the Venetian Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) who introduced the Europeans to the cultures of Asia and China and was widely discredited as preposterous, seems a likely drawing project. Even today, with his inclusion of some facts (paper money) and the omission of others (Chinese foot binding practice) there is no consensus as to whether Polo ventured on his journey or simply compiled his narrative from hearsay.
The act of traveling on a journey gives a sense of movement which might be interestingly caught by the discipline of drawing. The blurred exterior passing by the high speed train carriage window, where the train is given a sense of immobility and all motion is external. The characters in the carriage also become important, absorbed in their own journeys and making it a solitary and yet communal undertaking. .
Another way of approaching this concept of taking items for a journey is in the most basic; what do we normally take on a journey but our suitcase? The personal items are contained within the suitcase (unless they are as precious as the above and must be kept in hand luggage all the time).
Komi Tanaka took a suitcase on a journey to Rome and photographed the suitcase in various locales. These pictures, referenced to a tourist map, and displayed alongside the adventurous suitcase, formed an installation at Frieze 2013.
Drawing can always, an this is the most important factor besides recording things for posterity, enter the realms of the unreal. The abstract, the multi-coloured, the distorted; all of these are the everyday of contemporary drawing. Colour is the main feature in the works of Chadwick Rantanen (American 1981), for example, whether he is working in sculpture, installation or drawing.
Drawings from the imagination appeal to my aesthetic as photo quality reproductions of a scene seem to be outdated.
An imagined journey, with similarities to the disbelieved journey of the Venetian Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) who introduced the Europeans to the cultures of Asia and China and was widely discredited as preposterous, seems a likely drawing project. Even today, with his inclusion of some facts (paper money) and the omission of others (Chinese foot binding practice) there is no consensus as to whether Polo ventured on his journey or simply compiled his narrative from hearsay.
The act of traveling on a journey gives a sense of movement which might be interestingly caught by the discipline of drawing. The blurred exterior passing by the high speed train carriage window, where the train is given a sense of immobility and all motion is external. The characters in the carriage also become important, absorbed in their own journeys and making it a solitary and yet communal undertaking. .
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