Experiment #7 . Obsessive Drawing & Performance Art

Experiment #7 : Obsessive Drawing & Performance Art

Either using your own body, or creating a device that makes repetitive marks, construct a narrative, ritual, or action. The final drawing will be an artifact and/or residue of the performative work you have created.

The 'object' drawing will define area, time, energy, dimension, scale and object

Louise Bourgeois

Yayoi Kusama 

Yayoi Kusama

Ann Hamilton

Ann Hamilton

Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst

Ai Weiwei

TEXT: Where do Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds Begin & End?

Antony Gromley "Field"

Wolfgang Laib

Wolfgang Laib

Motoi Yamamoto

VIDEO: Motoi Yamamoto : Return to the Sea : SPOLETO : 8:43

Published on May 24, 2012

-- Free and open to the public -- College of Charleston's Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art has organized a major traveling exhibition of new work by contemporary Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto. The exhibition will premiere in Charleston, SC May 24-July 7, 2012, as a featured presentation of the Spoleto Festival USA. Return to the Sea: Saltworks by Motoi Yamamoto will travel nationally after its inaugural presentation, including stops in Los Angeles, CA, Charlotte, NC, and Monterey, CA. The centerpiece of the exhibition will be a site-specific installation created entirely out of salt by the artist during his two-week residency at the Halsey Institute on the campus of the College of Charleston in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

For more information: http://halsey.cofc.edu/

Actions

Either using your own body, or creating a device that makes repetitive marks / objects / things 

1. Construct a narrative, ritual, or action with your materials and their quantity
2. Write about the thoughts of your actions and what they might express beyond their materiality in your sketchbooks
3. Create an exhaustive list noting what your concepts you are delving into in your sketchbooks. Their materials and what they suggest. The quantity, use, space and what it might speak to. 
4. Let this list evolve throughout the entire experiment
5. Date each
6. How does your work contrast to Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds? 
7. How does it parallel Motoi Yamamoto Salt installations?
8. Note each in your sketchbook and add to your PPT
9. The final drawing will each be an artifact, trace or residue of the performative work you have recently spent time with
10. Photograph each 'sketch' in-situ, you will use these in your media presentations
11. Install your most successful and prepare to discuss the reasons of your selection
12. Note your work's relationship to Ai Weiwei's and Yamamoto's works in your PPT
13. Critique presentation will include your PPT of all your various 'studies' include discussion of the value of each as well as the limitations
14. Put the list in its entirety on your PPT - we want to see your evolution!
15. The 'object' drawing will define area, time, energy, dimension, scale and object and will be photographed in various ways
16. Materials may be 2D or 3D -- but remember TIME, is your most precious of any material you may use!
17. Send me an electronic copy of your studies in a PPT the day of following critique (TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2017)
18. Create a six paragraph (minimum) project statement of how your work effectively makes use of material, mark, time, space, your overall interpretive concept, consider the translations / perceptions from critique, as well as your works relationship to both Weiwei and Yamamoto. Include any other inspirations you wish, but remember you must be responsible for their inclusion by answering "Why?"
    2 Submit hardcopy of your project statement the day following critique
    3 Write a minimum of three sentences describing the concepts of each of your colleagues' work. Put your name on them.  Cut them out to present to each student artist in the class. Your sentences should include your interpretation of what the visual works seem to be expressing. 
    4 Insert your project statement within your PPT.
    
    
    CRITIQUE DATE:: Thursday, March 30th
    
    

    Student Work

    

    
    

    

    
    

    I doodle a lot when I am anxious, especially repetitive circular and wavy patterns. For the duration of this project, I carried around a sketchbook that I dedicated to these doodles with me everywhere I went. I would draw my lines in between classes, during lectures, before I went to bed, and whenever and wherever I found the opportunity to. I plan to continue this practice. I used black pens and markers to create my lines, which created a strong contrast against the off-white paper of the sketchbook. I think the monochromatic color scheme is important because it allows the viewer to focus more on the details of the lines and the different line qualities created.        

    
    

    The use of black pen on white paper also allows for the illusion of gray to appear in between lines. The steadiness of the lines and the distance between them noticeably varies from page to page and even cluster to cluster. I think that the more tired I was when drawing, the shakier the lines were and often they were farther apart. When I was more anxious, the lines were often darker or applied with more pressure and closer together. The closely drawn, anxiety filled ones often have small shakes in the lines throughout the doodles. I don’t have a steady hand to begin with and my hands always get shakier when I am anxious. This project almost acted as log of how many times throughout the day I get anxiety. I didn’t necessarily go out of my way to doodle in my notebook whenever I was feeling anxious, but it is apparent that that happened a lot.

    
    

    Flipping through the book is like flipping through my daily life. There are moments where the anxiety and my other ailments aren’t that bad but then a little while later—sometimes only minutes—it can be completely debilitating. This project allowed me to create a visual reference, for myself, of all the times that I am, for lack of a better term, casually anxious. I know how to handle it for myself and know what I need to do for me, but when other people see me they don’t understand. People don’t realize anxiety is an actual disability, and that in of itself is very invalidating and debilitating.

    
    

    My project contrasts with Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds in the notion that Weiwei’s art was created to make a political statement and created for the whole world. My art was created for me, almost as a way of journaling. From the very beginning of the idea of the project, Weiwei knew what he wanted to accomplish with his Sunflower Seeds and how to achieve those goals. The true nature behind my project became evident after I was fully invested in it. Weiwei’s piece is also an installation piece made out of 3D porcelain sunflower seeds and my piece is compiled of 2D ink drawings. My work is similar to Motoi Yamamoto’s salt installations because they both rely on intricate lines and are full of emotion.

    
    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    Critique student writing

    Marie: I think your video was beautifully executed and was the strongest part of your project. I understand what your intent was with photographing the boxes in various places, and I agree that the photographs were important to the concept, but I definitely think some photographs were stronger than others. I think that the fact that your boxes were made out of brown paper and were crushed by a white male really speaks to a whole other level of societal issues.

    
    

    Anne: I could tell that this was your piece right away and I think that it’s so cool that your work is recognizable across a plethora of media. The contrast from color to grayscale reminded me of that one hand and feet piece you did in figure drawing last semester that kind of looked like a butterfly. I think it would have been nice to see more of a transition from the layered thread to the writing, showing the timeline of thought process.

    
    

    Hayley: I think your mixture of media was super intriguing. I really liked the colors and texture you were able to create. I kind of question how true to the experiment your piece was though because it looks like a repetitive pattern you created in one sitting but not really something that you did obsessively for several days.

    
    

    John: I think your concept is really solid and really speaks to the times. I think the formatting and layout are a bit awkward and confusing and could be improved. I think your photos would have been stronger if they were all the same size, layered over each other rather than staggered and different sizes and opacities.

    
    

    Tiffany: Despite not being glass, black, and/or green, this is a very “you” project. I think logging your time was a really great idea and made your point come across even stronger. I wish you presented your scarf thingy a different way, maybe lain it out in the hallway or something, so we could see how long it was and you could blow everybody’s mind.

    
    

    Zach: I think your piece was visually very interesting and had a lot of texture. The progress shots you included really helped solidify the obsessive/repetition feeling of the project. I don’t really understand the whole “prison movie” concept behind your piece.

    
    

    Ruth: I think your piece, like a lot of your work, is hauntingly elegant and beautiful. I loved the randomness of the knots and how you pertained them to memory and loss. I think the piece is much more successful as a stationary installation piece than an interactive piece.

    
    

    Katie: I really liked the verticality of your piece and how it was like a margin in a notebook blown up. I think it was an interesting choice pairing up the doodles with pen on muslin. I think the piece would have been even more successful if you were somehow able to better blend the converging doodle styles as they went down the line.

    
    

    Morgan: I think your pieces, especially the mandala one, were beautiful and flooding with emotion. Your color schemes were vibrant and emotional and it makes total sense that you picked the colors based on your state of mind. I think using the watercolor paper as a substrate made the pieces feel a bit stiff and awkward, so embroidering on fabric might be something to look into for a more natural feeling finished product. 

    
    

    Jasmine: I feel like our projects are very similar in nature but where I stayed the same (i.e., color and location) you pushed yourself. I think the inclusion of different colors and metallic pens made your work that much more interesting. Part of me wishes it wasn’t on lined paper so we could focus more on the loops of the doodle, but the other part of me really likes the written aspect paired with the doodles.