Thursday, November 12, 2009

Recent studio work




I've been sat at my desk in the studio for the past week with my head down, drawing thousands upon thousands of pencil lines. Though my neck, arm and hand are a bit sore, I'm happy with the results of my hard labour.
I have been collecting numbers from everywhere; public transport time tables, food packaging, receipts, from websites, basically any time I see numbers I've been jotting them down in my notebook. The source of the numbers isn't really that important, I just need a bank of random numbers to make my drawings. There are also some great 'random number generator' websites if I need a large bulk of numbers at once.

I have been drawing lines with graphite and drawing lines with an eraser; constantly drawing, erasing, redrawing. It all contributes to a system that hopefully creates a drawing that is transformative, generative, one that can never be predetermined, but the process of making the drawing is very defined from the outset.

This type of process is very much about trail and error, looking for the imperfections and taking those ideas to generate new systems . It feels a bit  like a machine, turning one system into the next, which leads into the next series of drawings... it never ends!

As with my earlier experiments, I have been plotting lines on an x, y axis, taking 3 numbers at a time: 2 numbers define the section of the surface to draw lines in quick succession with a pencil and a ruler, and the 3rd number  which determines at which point I  will erase, by freehand and with my eyes closed (just to 'spice' it up a bit, haha), at that point.

In this piece: Untitled: 30'659' the process is repeated hundreds and hundreds of times and is divided into 4 areas. Each area is worked on separately and contains over 200 plotted numbers.


The Drawing in progress


Untitled: 30'659 (detail)


Finished piece:
Untitled: 30'659 (graphite on paper)
24x32 cm

By the way, 30'659 is the total sum of the area in which the lines have been made, in millimeters.

The next series of drawings are made in a similar way.
My starting point is to draw a line that is made by placing a pencil in my left hand, closing my eyes and drawing a single line across the surface.
Using found numbers once again, the lines are plotted along the free hand line created at the start of the drawing, again in groups of 3; 2 numbers to determine a block in which to place very quickly drawing lines, 1 number the determine where an erased line will appear.


First few experiments  (Untitled series 3)



Untitled: 3.1


Untitled: 3.2


Untitled: 3.2 (Detail)



Untitled: 3.3



Untitled: 3.3 (Detail)

And, I have started to really enjoy plotting lines along the curved line, so i made a quick experiment using the sphere at a space to plot random numbers along a curved line - which has sparked a few more ideas for me to carry on with over the next few days.



Untitled: Spheres



Untitled: Spheres



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