Expanded drawing discussion

Gillian Lavery, Camperdown Spiral, 2016, durational wall drawing, graphite on silk

The term 'expanded' is used across art forms to express how traditional art practice has developed with fusions of media, hybridism and changing understandings of materiality, space and temporality. In Tracing Materiality the artists' diverse practices are linked by mark-making hand gestures, that is to say 'drawing'. However, these drawing processes are expanded by duration, performance and documentation into ways of recording active embodied experiences of time, space and materiality, they communicate and discover various ways of analyzing the world and visual artistic languages using both non-traditional and traditional materials.

Please join our Expanded Drawing discussion to tease out some of these ideas around expanded drawing practices and how they are present and evolving in the processes and works in the exhibition. The discussion panel will include artists Gillian Lavery, Renuka Fernando and Kath Fries, and be chaired by Megan Robson, (Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia), 2pm Sunday 20th March, at Chrissie Cotter Gallery. Followed by finissage drinks with the artists, a final viewing of the exhibition and Gillian Lavery's erasure performance. 

This event is proudly presented as part of Art Month Sydney 2016
http://www.artmonthsydney.com.au/talks/tracing-materiality--artists-talks/

We're looking forward to Megan Robson chairing our Expanded Drawing finissage discussion. Megan is Assistant Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, where she recently curated the exhibitions Martu Art from the Far Western Desert, 2014 (co-curated with Anna Davis) and MCA Collection: New Acquisitions in Context, 2013. She has worked across a range of exhibitions including solo projects with Aleks Danko, Sylvie Blocher, Runa Islam, Anish Kapoor, Christian Marclay, and Annette Messager, and group exhibitions such as String Theory: Focus on contemporary Australian art, and Marking Time. She is currently working on an exhibition that explores the history of the MCA's Primavera series of exhibitions.
Previously she has worked for a number of art organisations in Australia and the UK, including the Barbican Centre, London and the Biennale of Sydney. In 2011, Megan received an Asialink grant to undertake curatorial research in Hong Kong with co-curator Joel Mu. She writes regularly on contemporary art for a range of publications and journals.

Kath Fries - chance and charcoal

Chance and instability are elements that intrigue me in art making processes, but chance by its very nature is difficult to set up, predict and influence without being overly heavy handed and theatrical. Trying not to be too precious or prescriptive, I kept my Dalliance layers of powdered charcoal intentionally unfixed and unprotected to see what would happen. I was unsure how carefully visitors would move around the gallery and how aware they might be of all our artworks off the walls and across the floor. Sometimes visitors are very cautious about negotiating their movements around unusual works, and sometimes they are not. Although this installation is situated in a wide-open space, it ended up being between the entrance and the bar – the opening night was busy – not very surprising then that someone would step straight through it. That footprint trace was documented and then buried beneath another layer of charcoal. Later in the week an excited dog ran across the corner and left some more delicate swishing paw-prints. Endearing! And the embarrassed owners are apparently relieved that I think so. These marks are being kept in situ for a few more days, we’ll see what occurs over the final weekend.

Kath Fries

www.kathfries.com

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, day 1

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal, paper and ceiling bolts

installation view, day 1 (with Renuka Fernando, Continuous Drawing, 2016)

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, day 1

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, with boot-print after opening event

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, with dog paw traces, week 2

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, with dog paw traces, week 2

Kath Fries, Dalliance, 2016, beeswax, string, charcoal and paper

detail view, week 2

Gillian Lavery - Making work live in the gallery.

Why would you choose to make work in the gallery?

The question about performance and performative drawing is something that Kath, Ren and myself have been discussing a lot in thinking about this exhibition. The notion of making work live in the gallery puts you in a fairly vulnerable position - but the possibilities that come from it are also rich.

I am often surprised by the reaction of viewers when they see the artist at work in the gallery.

Some people really like it and engage in conversation, the opportunity to talk about what you are doing – is this different when you are just minding the gallery?

There are some people who think that they are interrupting you – but this is never the case. It is not a performance in that way as there is no invisible line between myself and the viewer. It is about a space of conversation. There is no direction or plan, nor beginning or end, common elements of a performance.

I am trying to break down the barrier of visibility between process and end result. Part of the work is actually engaging in that conversation and opening up the opportunity to discuss process and what it means and feels like to make your work. I am not sure whether this would have the same effect if the work was complete and you were minding the gallery.

The conversation becomes part of the work because, like the making, the repetition of it allows the ideas to be thought through and played with, experimented with. You test out how you are thinking about the work when you engage in a conversation with someone. Sometimes they lead somewhere sometimes they don’t, and sometimes the result is surprising. 

Gillian Lavery

www.gillianlavery.com

Gillian Lavery - What has evolved.

Walking to the gallery this morning and I realised something.

I haven’t been here for a few days...

I don’t know what has evolved, what has been created and what has changed during the week.

It is not often that you go to mind the gallery of an exhibition you are in with the sense of not knowing what you will be greeted by.

More often than not you install a show and then it stays that way until you take it down. But that is not the case for this exhibition – and it is really exciting.

As I settled into my minding/drawing shift I noticed the subtle changes in the colour of the bees wax on Kath’s works and the shifts the powdered charcoal had made. I reacquainted myself with Ren’s drawings, making note of the additional marks on the paper and the quite dramatic transformation of the canvas (see below). The feeling of activity and energy lingered in the space. It was an energy I then used to continue my own drawing. I wonder if this sense of activity is as evident to the viewer and whether this changes their experience of the exhibition.

Renuka Fernando, Continuous Drawing, 2016, mixed media on canvas and preparatory sketches    

When Ren popped in later on we discussed how the works had changed, what she tried, what worked, what didn’t, and where to go from here... 

I am looking forward to seeing what happens next week.



Gillian Lavery
www.gillianlavery.com

Kath Fries - beeswax on paper experiments

I've been working with beeswax as a sculptural material over the past few years, fascinated by the texture, viscosity, history and metaphorical potential of this material. Recently I've been exploring different ways of applying beeswax to sheets of paper by heating, cooling and marking it to extend the translucency and malleability of this material. I plan to expand my experiments into large installation pieces for our upcoming exhibition. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share a few photos of my studio experiments. 

Kath Fries

www.kathfries.com

Kath Fries, Beeswax on paper - translucency, studio experiment 2015

Kath Fries, Beeswax on paper - peel, studio experiment 2015

Kath Fries, Beeswax on paper - cracks, studio experiment 2015

Kath Fries, Beeswax on wall and tree branch,  studio experiment 2015