Drawings of the Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, November 2009

drawing (5660), graphite on paper, A3 (30cm x 42 cm)

drawing (5657), graphite on paper, A3 (30cm x 42 cm)

My chapter "The Sublime and the Possibility of Meaning" 

has now been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing as part of the book "The Sublime Now". Contributors include amongst others Esther Leslie, Laura Mulvey, Claire Pajaczkowska, Griselda Pollock and Gene Ray.

"The Sublime Now"

ISBN(13): 978-1-4438-1302-0

http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/The-Sublime-Now1-4438-1302-8.htm

"Seachange" (see previous blog entry) will be exhibited as part of

"Joined Up, Contemporary Collaborative Drawing" 

at the Vault Gallery in Lancaster.

For more information see: 

http://www.vaultgallery.org/exhibitions_joinedup.html

‘SEA CHANGE’

A collaborative work by the German artist, Bettina Reiber, the Canadian writer, Leslie Forbes, and the English graphic designer, Andrew Thomas

General Philosphy of our Collaboration

In 2007 the three of us began working together on drawing projects exploring the notion of place. Then, 

in 2009, we began a collaborative project focussing specifically on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula (which, ironically, has a historic location named ‘Place’). We stayed there for a week in June working collaboratively on land art, photography, writing and drawing.

Method/Process for the composite ‘SEA CHANGE’

We began by meeting in London and discussing our chosen method, establishing that although our structure would be very formal, with each person working within the limits of a 25cm by 25cm piece of paper, we must feel absolutely free to deconstruct the previous person’s drawing in any way: tearing or cutting, scribbling, scratching or collaging on it.

   It was decided to choose a photo taken on our June 2009 trip to Roseland and divide it into 9 squares, 25cm by 25cm, with each person given a random three 25cm sections of the photo. We agreed to take our 

3 sections away to work separately, and for us to reassemble three nights later, when we would pass ‘our’ three drawings to the next person, at that time exchanging ideas about method, materials and process. 

This would continue until each of us had worked on all 9 drawings. The final step was to make a composite of all 9 drawings.

The outcome of our process is nine drawings of 25 cm by 25 cm that each work as individual drawings in their own right. Equally, they work as a composite, when arranged in the 3-square format.

Important aspects for us in creating ‘Sea Change’

1/ Our intellectual collaboration in devising its process and structure. 

2/ The tactile, physical collaboration, working on drawings started, continued and completed by three separate artists.

3/ The ‘time’ aspect of developing ideas in London that were responses to having stayed together in a very particular Cornish landscape, and responding to ‘place’ physically and intellectually: sitting together and drawing together, but also working separately, then coming together again to discuss and share individual thinking processes.  

4/ The sense of being involved in a social and an artistic experiment.

Here are some of the pieces (25 cm x 25 cm each) that exist as drawings in their own right, and which as a group in a particular sequence make up "Seachange" which will be shown at the Vault Gallery in Lancaster at the end of November (see posts above). This is part of an ongoing collaboration between Leslie Forbes, Andrew Thomas and me.

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4914)

Mixed media on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4913)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4912)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4911)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4910)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

14 September 2009 (4909)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Exhibition

Pictures @ Open House

Newington Green Unitarian Church

Saturday, 19th September, 10 am to 5 pm and

Sunday, 20th September, 1.30 pm and 5 pm

I will show a group of recent life drawings in an exhibition at the Newington Green Unitarian Church as part of Open House London next weekend. I'll be there on Sunday, 20th September, between 1.30 pm and 5 pm; the building and exhibition are also open the day before, Saturday, 19th September, from 10 am to 5 pm. 

For Open House info and to download a location map:

http://www.londonopenhouse.org/public/london/find/detail.asp?loh_id=16063&postcode=N16%209PR&period=period&building=type&wheelchair=&architect=&resident=&activities=&name=&greenbuild=&advanced=false

This is the link to a podcast where I speak about the sublime at the Tate Symposium "The Sublime Now", a two day event held at Tate Britain in October 2007. 

http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/podcast/mp3/20-10-07sublime_conference.MP3

The podcast begins with a brief introduction to the second day of the event, followed by a presentation by Peter De Bolla, after which I introduce the panel "Experiencing the Sublime" with a discussion of the kind of experience philosophers refer to when they use the term "sublime".

Details of the event:

Sublime

Friday 19 October 2007, 18.30–20.00
Saturday 20 October 2007, 10.00–18.00

SOLD OUT

Recently, the notion of the sublime has received a new lease of life, enjoying attention from major writers as diverse as Harold Bloom to Jacques Derrida, and warranting interpretations in (quite aside from the expected fields of art and aesthetics) literary history, feminism, post-colonial theory, psychoanalysis, political theory and international relations. Before this, throughout the eighteenth century, the word ‘sublime’ had been in use to describe an aesthetic of incommensurability; it was the publication of Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful in 1757 that cemented the term for art and philosophical aesthetics.

This symposium asks why the Sublime now? What is its legacy today? In what ways has the Sublime acquired an added urgency in our new millennium? And to what extent is this concept a useful or dangerous tool for the understanding of contemporary culture and history?

In collaboration with Middlesex University, London Consortium and part of the Sublime Objectresearch programme, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Tate Britain  Auditorium

Full details of the event from the Tate website:

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/symposia/11245.htm

Drawing

27 July 2009 (4851)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing

26 July 2009 (4848)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

Drawing 

26 July 2009 (4849)

Graphite on paper

84 cm x 60 cm

drawing, dance, 3

choreographer Vangelis Legakis, Laban Centre, London, 16/07/09

graphite on paper, 82 cm x 60 cm

drawing, dance, 2

choreographer Vangelis Legakis, Laban Centre, London, 16/07/09

graphite on paper, 82 cm x 60 cm

drawing, dance, 1

choreographer Vangelis Legakis, Laban Centre, London, 16/07/09

graphite on paper, 82 cm x 60 cm