Drawing Connections Conference III - 2005

DRAWING : A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
A conference presented by the International Drawing Research Institute. 15 - 16 July 2005 College of Fine Arts, UNSW

In 2001 and 2003 the International Drawing Research Institute presented two major international drawing conferences. From Aboriginal sand drawing to Iain McCaig, the conceptual artist behind the Star Wars characters; from the English ‘Spitting Image’ creator, Roger Law to drawings by Ben Morieson produced by car tyres, the conferences explored personal and public drawing expression, and how this reflects the cultural context of contemporary art and design practice. The third Drawing Connection Conference will be held in July 2005, and coincide with another IDRI initiative, the Sydney Drawing Festival.

The theme of the 2005 conference is Drawing – a Matter of Life and Death, will explore not only the crucial importance of drawing to many facets of life but deal with those who are drawn to the complex subject matter of mortality. The artist and educators include Peter Pommerer from Germany, Sandy Moffat from Scotland, Peng Bo from China, Jac Soarsa from Costa Rica, Andrew Sayers, Mike Parr and Mike Esson from Australia, and other contributors as yet unconfirmed.

The International Drawing Institute has positioned The College of Fine Arts, UNSW as one of the leading institutions promoting drawing research throughout the world. Together with the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, and the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China, IDRI continues to explore the role of drawing within artistic practice, as well as its value as an important educational tool. Since its’ launch in 2000, the Institute has advanced drawing research through conferences, exhibitions, publications, workshops, exchanges of staff and students and collaborative research projects. These have included studies into eye tracking drawing at the Imperial College, London, and offering drawing courses to Plastic Surgeons to aid their surgical activities.

A recent project in Xian, China involved four artists working alongside four People’s Liberation Army soldiers, creating an artists army of drawings inspired by the local terracotta warriors. The Institute continues to promote the primacy of drawing within the visual arts and design, and explores the extension of the discipline to all areas of human endeavour.

Mike Esson: Artist, and Director, International Drawing Research Institute. COFA, 'The Courage of Your Doubts:' Moving between physiology, physiognomy, and psychology, Esson draws upon science and pseudo-science as a catalyst for creating visual interpretations. The visual expression is explored through the drawing process, finding equivalents in line and mark to investigate a visual resonance for ideas of mortality and identity. This is part of a wider cultural climate, forging links between art, anatomy and surgery; not in the obvious way, where concerns with new technologies dominate, but rather the direct evaluation of traditional values with a contemporary relevance. Much of his work also deals with the self- portrait and here the role of the artist becomes blurred with that of the surgeon and patient, ambiguous metaphors reflecting medical histories and confronting private fears.

Peng Bo: Artist, and Deputy Director Dong Hua University, Shanghai

Mike Parr: Artist: Sydney, Australia. '100 breaths:' I started drawing in 1981 because around that time I stopped doing the body art performances that I'd done throughout the 1970's. There was something deathly about all the photographic residues. I began by gridding up the photographs and meticulously trying to turn all the photographic tone into line. I also re-drew drawings by mathematically extending the axii of the grid so that drawings became vertically elongated or squashed. This was the beginning of the Self Portrait Project which was my way of analyzing mechanical distortion as psychological content. It was also my way of learning to draw. The presentation will include a videotape of the performance "100 Breaths" in which I hold etchings of self portraits to my face by inhaling my breath. As the performance proceeds I hyperventilate so that my portrait emerges as a strange expression between the prints. All my work seems to entail a tension between representation and physical processes close to performance art.

 

Andrew Sayers: Director National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia. Wedge into the Unknown: Godfrey Miller’s drawings form one of the greatest bodies of Australian draughtsmanship of the twentieth century. The artist described drawing as his ‘bulldozer or wedge into the unknown’. Taking this idea as a starting point this lecture will expand on some of the ideas in Miller’s drawings. We will look in detail at his drawings from his earliest years (when Miller studied under the surgeon-turned-artist Henry Tonks) to the spare and open graphic meditations of his last years.

 

Jac Saorsa: Artist, Director of Drawing, University Veritas, Costa Rica. Drawing unto Death: Based on the idea that‘process’ represents‘life and a finished result represents‘death this presentation will document through word and image the various stages in the execution of a drawing from the live model. The drawing itself is produced over a specific period of time and a series of photographs, taken over the duration of the process, form the visual part of the presentation along with the drawing itself. The written paper will draw on Barthes' Camera Lucida with respect to relating the drawing process to photography, and go on to address themes of temporality, the experiential attitude, and meaning, in relation to life and death.

 

Sandy Moffatt: Head of Drawing and Painting, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. 'Life, Death and Resurrection:' Commencing with the film of his close friend John Bellany, Moffat will explore images of mortality as a recurrent theme in contemporary Scottish drawing.

Moffat will focus upon the major influence of John Bellany, and make reference to other artists including Ken Currie, Peter Howson, Jenny Saville, etc.