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September/October 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - EMILEE LORD (USA) All aspects of my work are firmly rooted in the process, material nature and theory of drawing. Either in performance, through an installation or with ink on paper and silk, I use lines, gestures, prints and materials to explore the fleeting, physical, immediate and sensory nature of drawing. The mark is an action, instructions for action, and a trace of an action. There is information about the body in these things. My work over the last couple of years has begun to truly merge my areas of interest. I have been making installations that use both drawn and material line, I have used repetition to engage community involvement in drawing and composition, and I have begun to generate a series of graphic and instructional scores for performance, some of which are abstract drawings with deconstructed dance notation symbols that can stand on their own as a drawing as well as be read or performed. The questions I have in my current studio practice and those I would like to answer while at DRAWinternational are: How can a drawing communicate to the body or communicate something about the body? How can the body communicate/generate a linear two dimensional composition in space? How long can you repeat something before it wears down? Can a physical action generate a drawing that can then be read back into a physical action?
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August/September 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - NATHALIE HARTOG-GAUTIER (AUSTRALIA) Over recent years, my art has focused on an exploration of the different meanings associated with the idea of the voyage: the voyage in the sense of personal/autobiographical journeying; and the voyage in terms of geographical voyaging. This project will continue essentially within this thematic terrain. During my residency at Caylus I would like to explore its closeness to the Aveyron River. I am conceiving the river as emblematic of the very notion of a journey. I propose following the passage of the river as it encounters cities and negotiates its way through levees, embankments, and bridges. I propose to travel along or on the river and develop artworks which will explore the river’s character and its mood, and the nature of its penetration of the landscape. In summary, I am proposing to: Develop a set of frottages of the bridges, recording their different surfaces Draw the bridges, recording their shapes and formal characteristics, and their tonalities. Create an Herbarium of plants growing near the bridges (when permitted) Draw the river and its riverbanks, with particular reference to the rhythmic relationships between these two motifs Make sound recording and interview one person from each bridge. The river is the “in between” place of what I can see and what I can feel. The frottage is a subjective memory of the tactile: it is objective because the bridge is physically there but subjective as the touch can be applied differently. The bridges represent a link between the right and left bank and become a symbol of the journey, the passage between two landscapes. The water patterns and riverbanks metaphorically represent a form of emotional writing, anger, frustration, and happiness. Ultimately, the project will represent a romantic and sensorial interpretation of the riverscape. www.nathaliehartog.com.au
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July 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - DIANE RICHEY-WARD (USA) I’m intrigued by the progression of one form as it morphs into another, in addition to the challenge of converging diverse imagery. I plan to further investigate the potential of layering as it relates to the coalescence of form and idea. I plan to develop this interest in structural and organic form by creating 10 drawings that investigate the morphology of architectural forms . By intersecting colorful framework with a variety of abstract layers, it will provide me with a potentially unlimited source of new configurations. I hope to find a certain linear energy or reverberation between the layers. As Diane Arbus the photographer once said, '"It's what I've never seen before that I recognize". In an attempt to find my own voice in an increasingly turbulent world, I'm seeking a certain poetic reality- an unexpected trace order in chaos.
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June 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JANE NELSON MEYER (USA) To the kind people at DRAWinternational: I have read that you are looking for an artist to “fill some shoes” this summer. Let me just say that with size eleven feet, filling shoes is one of my many specialties. But before I stick my large foot in your residency door, I want to tell you about the recent adventure that revealed to me my own artistic language. Competition For The Sun It was a late October day last year and the world was covered in fog. We paddled down the river in our aluminum canoe, awestruck like explorers wordlessly discovering ancient caves frosted with bioluminescent creatures. Only the ghostly riches of nature can so thoroughly reduce a human to a fugue state of wonder and voyeurism. As we softly dipped our paddles and glided down the glossed river, the mountain island approached—an enormous sleeping beast shrouded in fog. We let our vessel list shoreway as we ventured under its basswood canopy. Though the island was deserted, the air was thick with the words: “You don’t belong here.” The behemoth landmass loomed 130-meters high into the eerie atmosphere; however, an intense drive to finish our expedition overrode our better judgment. We simply had to climb. There were no manmade paths on this side of the island. Ankle-biting brush laced a quickly steepening mountainside. The trees thickened. Covered in slippery mud, we saw that we were halfway up to the peak. To turn back promised broken bones; so, with young, blind hope for a safer way down we journeyed along in silence. Eyes heavily focused, we steadily ascended the beast. Grappling with rotten tree limbs and eroding sandstone covered in wet leaves—like spinach lying rotten in the mountain island’s teeth—we carefully gauged each upward step to prevent slippage. Bruises and scrapes: proof that we were not always successful. But we ignored these injuries, because each of us thirsted to reach up and touch that matte-gray sky hiding like a prize above hazy tree limbs. The prospect of reaching the impossible invigorated us. And there it was—the physical barrier between the journey and the final realization of some thing magically important to oneself. We rose above the fog. The moment I finish a piece of art—the moment when it all clicks and I have only to scrawl my signature—is the moment I rise above the fog. In the exploration of my work, I first succumb to this same “fugue state of wonder and voyeurism.” Nearly out-of- body, I watch my hands lovingly labor over paper and canvas. The way I float on instincts to inform my mark-making parallels my journey up the mountain island: I have to make and I have to climb. In the residency, I plan to create a new drawing series to show in a gallery. I propose to make visual comparisons between the human psyche and the natural world; I imagine those concepts evolving and strengthening as I contribute and experiment at DRAWinternational. The key to success for me is to passionately fall for an idea and commit to it. Honing my focus in on mark-making while part of a trans-continental community will be another life-changing adventure. I hope that your travels through my résumé and portfolio leave you above the fog as well. Thank you. Sincerely, Jane Nelson Meyer (The best pair of feet for the job).
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June 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ANGELA GOOLIAFF (CANADA) Bug Struggles is a new idea that I would like to evolve into a series of large drawings. The preliminary sketches have already received a lot of attention; and though the idea is inchoate, it has evolved into a collaboration with a creative thinker who will provide text that will accompany each bug drawing. The creative thinker is a trained and working biologist. During the one-month residency at DRAWinternational, my focus will be bridging the text and drawings, creating a new body of large works in colour that is connected through narrative. At present, I use children’s plastic toys as models for drawing and sketching bugs. In the attached photos, you will see sketches based on the Bug Struggles theme. The process is approaching the subject matter through their struggle, and creating new ways to interpret struggle, via drawing. Each critter is named by the creative writer/biologist who also provides a short description describing what the bug is doing or has happened to it. There have been already a number of gallery and museum requests for exhibition of these drawings. Thus, I am currently drawing 14” x 16” works without text for immediate gallery requests. I am also in discussion with a British Columbia museum to draw specimens from their collection. What distinguishes my present work from the time spent at the DRAWinternational residency is the creation of a cohesive narrative and production of large format works in colour (approximately 4’ x 4’), combining the text with each drawing. The goal is to transfer the small-scale sketches into a larger versions of themselves based on the text. My work uses parody to reflect patterns in human behaviour and I have recently taken to studying dream analysis with a Jungian therapist. In Bug Struggles, I am investigating the social pressures we all experience to attain perfection, or how we hide our struggles in order to be perceived as “fine”. Through struggle, we learn, grow, evolve and are ultimately more relatable to others; thus, we are more connected and balanced. Struggle, a universal condition, is a basic component for being human. The struggles that we endure are unavoidable; yet, there is a frantic desire to avoid them and hide them from others. I use insects as subject matter to mirror human behaviour. This is further elaborated on in a 3-minute documentary about my work: http://vimeo.com/59824644. The documentary was produced by Teens@Evergreen, a program by the Evergreen Cultural Centre, in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. In the following drawings, some (not all) of the bugs have been named and given a description. There is a brief update under each drawing indicating its status. These examples provide context of the work’s essence. www.angelagooliaff.com
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May 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BOEDI WIDJAJA (SINGAPORE) Drawing recurs in my works. It is a visceral method to enquire, clarify, test, imagine, map and most importantly, to search by sensing out possibilities in and through the act itself. Drawing is in me, not a specialised skill that I acquired through formal studies but a natural activity borne of lifelong practice. For me to explore drawing means also to enquire into issues that are important to me: home, identity, and place. Urban sociologist Richard Sennett in The Craftsman urges making as a way to learn more about ourselves, especially with our modern cities’ disconnection with material culture. I draw to know and with new understanding drawing again to see. At the residency, I hope to: seek out new material and conceptual possibilities for contemporary handmade drawings. critically reflect upon my drawing practice: impulses, motivations, processes, imagery, materiality, interactivity, physical activity and presentation. www.boediwidjaja.com
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March /April 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JACK CANDLISH (CANADA) My work has been particularly influenced by Craig Owens postmodern theory. I am attracted to Owen’s deconstruction of an idea, or symbol of society, to better critically analyze modern assumptions. From there, I wanted to create work that is a visual interpretation of this critical deconstruction and begin rebuilding, to create something that is not in stasis but rather changing, evolving, progressing for better or worse. With Owens’ theories of allegory and postmodernism in combination with a personal narrative, I attempt to visualize contemporary society as a whole and its affects on the individual. I would like to see how the individual in turn affects the structure of the whole, how personal narratives add up to change and shape the overall structure. This also provides an opportunity for individual connection or interpretation of the piece. I believe that a residency will allow for an excellent opportunity to continue developing this work. Jack Candlish
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February/March/April 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - DANIELLA TURBIN (UK) Within a period of three months spent at DRAWinternational, I propose to continue an investigation into human mind with a focus drawn towards the psychological space one encounters when dreaming. This is of fundamental significance to human development, my point of departure lies within the documentation of this alternate world as a process to understand, derive order from chaos, elevate the overlooked, grasp the paradoxical, interconnect the physical and abstract. In an attempt to grasp the impossible and paradoxical structures and layout of the dream world, the works of M.C Escher and 'Inception' are my point of departure. Stemming from Freud's Interpretation of Dreams through to Jefferey Moussaieff's contemporary dream analysis. Drawing is used as a primary tool or investigative medium, currently exploring the subjective and objective mark. Reinforced by Ludwig Wittensteins 'Philosophical Investigations 2', the subjective and objective mark is further explored through dualisms, in the case of dreams the external (objective) and internal (subjective). The work I intend to create will act as a transgression of the two into three dimensional, taking the language of mark making to alter the viewers perception, this will be further explored through juxtaposition and further examination of the relationship between text and image, and the possibilities of altering the viewers perception of text through combining with mark making. reinforced through writings on perception such as Aldous Huxley's 'Doors of Perception' and Walter Benjamin's 'On Paintings, Signs and Marks'. Daniella Turbin
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February 2014
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ELSA LEFEBVRE (FRANCE) L’expérience est un fait vécu Vivre une aventure humaine et artistique, voilà ce qui m’intéresse. Je suis constamment à la recherche d’un lieu qui m’aide à développer la connaissance des êtres et des choses par une rencontre. Ces expériences uniques me permettent d’approfondir mon thème de prédilection : la narration. Mon travail s’inspire directement de ma vie et de mon rapport au monde. Je transforme l’expérience vécue en une expérience poétique. La résidence DRAWinternational m’intéresse fortement par le programme AIR qu’elle propose aux jeunes artistes. Peu de résidences ouvrent leurs portes aux nouveaux plasticiens avec un espace de recherche et d’expérimentation permettant élargir leur univers grâce à des échanges culturels, artistiques et pédagogiques, le tout dans un contexte professionnel et contemporain. Je vois la création comme plusieurs temps qui s’imbriquent : l’expérimentation, la construction et la présentation. Ces différents temps se transforment pour moi en un processus créatif : le temps de la narration, le temps du récit et le temps de la fiction. Ces différentes étapes me permettent de transformer la narration en une émotion plastique. L’approche de la création ne se définit pas en ce qui me concerne comme un schéma ou une préparation en amont mais plutôt comme un bricolage constant. L’échange créatif est le liant constant entre ces trois temps. DRAWinternational met en avant l’importance du dialogue, comme outil de recherche. Cette vision du travail créatif est primordiale pour moi et c’est pour cela que j’aimerais rejoindre DRAWinternational pour une session de travail d’un mois. Dans mes travaux je ne me contente pas de faire appel à un unique medium. En effet, je travaille aussi bien le dessin, la sculpture, ou encore la photo. Cependant, le dessin est mon medium de prédilection, il me permet de faire naître mon paysage mental. Les formes hybrides, les espaces poétiques sont l’expression de mes émotions premières ressenties lors de mon processus créatif. Ces formes naissantes dans ces dessins sont souvent les prémices de mes sculptures. Durant ce séjour mon but serait de développer un projet de dessin - sculpture composé en deux temps. Le premier temps serait d’établir sur des grands formats, une cartographie de l’émotion fondée sur mon expérience quotidienne au sein de DRAWinternational. Le deuxième temps serait propice à la transformation de ces dessin cartographies en sculptures. Comment travailler le papier une fois rempli comme un volume ? C’est un projet qui me tient à cœur et que j’aimerais réellement concrétiser au sein de DRAWinternational. Elsa Lefebvre
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October 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - SUSAN WALSH (USA) My work often tests the boundaries of photography and in this project I am fascinated by the intersection between drawing and the photographic image. Using the sun, pieces of thread, paper and my camera, I will create shadow drawings about time / place, about losing something vital and regaining one’s sense of connection (a thread) to the here and now. I have begun to create thread “drawings“ in my studio in Beacon, New York, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon — a precise, haunting intersection of an object (thread), the sun, the time, and location. These pieces look very much like pen and ink drawings. I see sound waves in these thread drawings, waves of music without sound. I was very moved by Kay Larson’s biography of John Cage, Where the Heart Beats. The expression "marking time" is about waiting, but it also alludes to the literal meaning of marching in place to the time or beat of music. www.susanwalshstudio.com
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September/October 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - SANDE WATERS (CANADA) Throughout my life I have struggled to understand and feel comfortable with my sexuality, how I relate to others and the sexual expectations of my culture. My artistic practice has been a personal investigative therapy, which continues to enlighten me with new discoveries. Overwhelmingly my work evokes spiritual and erotic awareness of the female body as archetype of the human condition. At DRAWinternational I plan to continue pushing my work further regarding issues of female sexuality in relation to cultural norms and expectations by creating drawings which are collaged with photographs and painting. I am fascinated with the sexuality of older women and women who have atypical bodies. www.sandewaters.com
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August 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BARBIE KJAR (AUSTRALIA) In my current art practise I am focusing on drawing portraits from life and then introducing some form of disguise. I am exploring the idea of the double, and myths relating to the various guises Zeus undertook in order to seduce women, in particular his transformation into an eagle, bull, golden coins,and a cloud. I am interested in the idea of the double and the Jungian concept of the shadow/ the other. I have been drawing one person from two different sides. I believe a months residency would allow me to develop large scale portrait drawing, primarily in charcoal and ink. I would like to extend the type of people I draw to include people from other cultures or who have unusual facial composition. I am intending to enrol in a PHD for 2014 at sydney College for the Arts, my question relates to the source of portraiture and the process and how these influence the representation of portrait. I propose to investigate portraits drawn from life, from photographs (Marlene Dumas), from found images, from life and imagined or drawn from literary sources. My secondary question is, how relevant is the traditional model of drawing from life in contemporary portraiture? I will challenge my art practise and include images sourced apart from life drawing. My main aim for the residency is to extend the mark making and to challenge my drawing practise and to create large scale portraits. I would plan to work with charcoal, watercolour and ink onto large scale paper.
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July/August 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ALISON GRAHAM (UK) I have been offered a scholarship residency at DRAW international, as an opportunity to further develop my practice and research through explorative methods of drawing and documenting landscape and transferring this body of new research interpretations into a new series of ceramic artworks. This also allows me the opportunity to engage with visitors to the exhibition through discussions of my work and research, and developments during the residency in Caylus through an open-studio policy. I first met John and Grete McNorton when I began my Masters in Ceramics at Cardiff School of Art & Design in 2004. At the beginning of the course, a trip was organised to DRAWinternational, and I spent 4 days developing my drawing and mark-making skills under the guidance and tuition of Dr John McNorton. This intense period of tuition, guidance and support proved a crucial turning point in my artistic development: from a fear of drawing born out of insecurity, to an inquisitive and enthusiastic engagement with drawing and mark-making that continues to this day. DRAWinternational will be the first professional organisation to publicly showcase my doctoral artworks and studio-based investigations since graduating in July 2012, and offers a valuable opportunity for me to communicate my research outcomes and findings visually, orally and in written form to an international audience: through the exhibition of artworks, discussion of my research and artistic developments (both during and since my studies) through workshops and open studios. The opportunity to develop my work and my methods of creative and professional practice during this residency in a supportive, well-established and well-equipped environment, whilst reflecting directly on my doctoral research and current practice, will be invaluable. I intend to write an article about the experience and how it has challenged, changed or impacted on my creative practice, with a view to publication in an international art journal.
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July 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - NIAMH MERC (IRELAND) The perception of touch through the medium of drawing and painting is a primary source of expression for me. Tactile perception through drawing on a surface allows me to explore myself at a semi-conscious level. It brings me to a completely unknown sense of myself. The expressive power of dots, lines, shapes, areas, colour and composition in the final exploratory paintings help to make my feelings real to me. I want to further explore this process of making marks on a surface in a more intensive and reflective manner. Measurement is a recurring theme in my work. I attempt to invent images that measure intangible phenomena such as the amounts of water needed in the body to release emotions. Further exploration into interpreting unresolved feelings that have surfaced for me are essential for my work to progress. I am searching to represent my own ideas about living between the earth and the sky. For me, this landscape is an inner and outer world and is both fact and fiction. Niamh Merc
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July/September 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JEANNINE COOK (USA) For many years, I have been drawing in metalpoint. I am deeply interested in expanding the vocabulary and scope of this ancient medium. Recently, I have been using a black ground on which to draw, versus a white-cream or tinted ground. This is a stimulating and very different voice of metalpoint. I would use the opportunity of a month’s residency at Drawinternational to explore more fully the possibilities of this particular version of metalpoint on black. Heretofore, I have only worked in a very small format, but I hope to be able to scale up to larger drawings, using a freer, more gestural approach. This requires more time than I have been able to devote to this venture, particularly in view of metalpoint’s inherently slow intensity of execution.
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March 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - HANNAH SARAH JAMES (UK)
Is your drawing practice primarily concerned with ideas of abstraction ?
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February/March/April 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - KATIE BELCHER (CANADA) During this residency I plan to research and produce drawings on the wall and on paper that will mingle natural and manufactured forms with landscape. I will combine subjects drawn from observation with those done from memory—machinery, museum specimens, furrowed fields, feather, fur and rope, and abandoned or remembered architectures. It will be an exploration of agricultural history rather than my previous personal memory narratives. I intend also to experiment with documentation in new media (photography, video and animation) to further propel the performative aspects of my drawing practice. The opportunity to engage with other artists in discussions about drawing will enrich my practice, and I hope that my involvement would do the same for others. A residency focused on drawing in particular will provide me an environment within which to take risks in my practice while still exploring the richness of this medium. I look forward to the sustained completion of a single project and am excited for the depth of involvement in my practice that this opportunity will bring. www.katiebelcher.com
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January/February 2013
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - KELLIE O'DEMPSEY (AUSTRALIA) As an artist in residence I aim to research and develop a body of work investigating hand drawn gestural mark making in combination with live digital drawing. Incorporating elements unique its location my current practice is a flexible transportable model resulting in site-specific installations. Drawing is at the core of my collaborative and cross-disciplinary projects which explore the notion of the total artwork or Getsumkunstwerk. During this practice led production I aim to cultivate new work via a 4.part structure: 1.Collection: surface and site construction, field drawings and digital projection experiments 2.Design: narrative, parameters and collaboration 3.Performance: a progressive drawing installation work for the gallery 4.Exhibition: as installation including performance documentation as artifact This project investigates time, space, and movement as narrative and intends to avail an opportunity and a possibility for interaction way through experiential making and play. Identifying and unraveling notions of public and private space via drawing, I explore the interconnected experience of human engagement and hope to perform a public work. Kellie O'Dempsey Recipient Australia Council Artstart Grant.
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October 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JULIE PAYNE (AUSTRALIA) I have recently completed a solo exhibition at Handmark Gallery in Tasmania that examined the notion of specimens. These drawings were influenced by the very careful botanical like approach to drawing that were then included in a greater landscape as a means of describing place. I have used the Japanese Album format to form a single continuous drawing. What I would like to achieve within the residency is to explore a sculptural approach to drawing, combined with a desire to experiment with as many different drawing methods as possible. www.juliepayne.com.au
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September/October 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - EVAN BROENS (CANADA) The theories presented by Goethe and his topic of intuitive consciousness as a way of understanding has become central to my working methodology. Drawing has operated as a grounding moment in my creative process and there are aspects of my practice and my work which includes drawing. Yet this way of working has not fully become a secure element in my portfolio. The DRAWinternational residency is an important opportunity to initiate drawing as its own entity in my practice, rather than being supplementary; bridging practice and theory and, as the website indicates, to locate a contextual framework. With the DRAWinternational residency, I intend on achieving within a two month period an exhibition consisting of ten to fifteen fully realized drawings. These works would be the result of several working series explored during the residency; selection for the exhibition would be based on the Board Members critique of all the works made in the multiple series. This process would aid in solidifying drawing as a part of my overall work. My intention here is to initiate a framework and to develop a theory regarding my mark making, and the tendencies that arise out of my drawing sensibilities. Using an assortment of materials and applications, I will be engaged with mark making as an intuitively conscious action in finding a shape as it is meant to be. Regarding my working methodology, shapes are my central interest when it comes to making visual art. I'll see them, I'll sense them, and I'll make several "attempts" to get them out. This is where abstraction is happening. I use a flexible material to get a shape quickly, like drawing and cloth folding, to get something grounded. At this grounding moment, I begin to try and understand how that particular shape needs to be. This is where I'm looking and trusting my actions, whether its cutting or drawing, or moving the materials. Generally, my over-arching interest in residencies is researching how a place affects visual language; I would like to be able to strengthen the skill of articulating the experiences of place and time into object making and thus in communicating through pure visual means. I postulate that the DRAWinternational residency will affectively change the vocabulary of my visual language, and wilfully come away with a more comprehensive cognition of my drawing as an integral part of my working method. The process of morphology in shape through drawing is documented on my website. October 22, 2011 Evan Broens evanbroens.tumblr.com
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September/October 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ANNA HAYES (UK) Fragility within human existence is key to the beauty in our world. My exploration of this thus far has taken me to look at virtual reality, however my intentions are to discover the apparent ephemerality of our own nature without this metaphor. To use the etherial qualities of drawing and watercolour; to take from what exists in my direct surroundings, a way of mapping my own experience within this world and the delicacy of it. Drawing lends itself perfectly to this, as what is drawing other than absolute discovery. During my time at DRAWinternational I wish to make a body of small drawings and watercolours to aid ongoing research in to this area. Working with the emotional and sensory experience that I have with my environment, highlighting the subtlety and beauty of both mediums and the poetic and contemplative nature of the ideology.
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September 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - NONI BOYLE (CANADA) My work is an exploration of identity and belonging through landscape – or more particularly, through an experience of environment. I have lived and worked in different areas of Canada, and these varied geographical environments have informed my work to a large extent. In 2008, I did an 8 week residency in the Yukon, and began to focus on notions of wilderness and the Canadian north as they relate to Canadian identity. Although the work is based in landscape, I am less interested in portraying the appearance of specific places than I am with capturing a sense of the rhythms and pulse of being there. In my mixed media constructions I deal with themes of ecology, spirituality, and personal experience of place. These works are layered in their physical construction, the various media and processes involved in creating them, and the layers of meaning and reference contained within them. There are several references to poets and poetry in the work, along with strategies of poetic construction and metaphor. The commonality shared by the poets and writers whose work influences me, is a theme of spiritual engagement with nature and reference to the transformative potential of contemplation. It is this sense of transformation through awareness that I attempt to address in my work. Since drawing is central to my practice, I was very excited to find a residency opportunity that seems to celebrate the act of drawing to the extent that DRAWinternational does. One of the reasons that I wish to do a residency in France has to do with the exploration of place, identity and belonging. My maternal family history has its roots in France (many generations past). I have not spent more than a few weeks in France prior to this, and would welcome the opportunity to stay long enough to absorb a sense of place and develop some work in response. The other objective I have is to work on a sustained project in which I plan to create a large installation/drawing, using materials as mark. This is a process I have employed before in my work, using material such as driftwood, twigs, glass, pebbles and so on. I have recently been developing some smaller versions of what I would like to explore on a much larger scale - using glass.
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July 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - LYNDL HALL (CANADA) My work is engaged with drawing practices through the examination of the relationship between a line and its surface, specifically how a line transforms a blank space and how that space then contextualizes the impinging line; drawing then becomes an apparatus through which to think differently about the surface that is being marked — the world sustaining that mark. My goal is to execute a series of works, ranging from working drawings to documented performance, as I attempt to ascertain my exact position in space using a sextant, compass and sundial of my own construction, while exploring the poetic implications of alternative graphic based methods for direction, specifically the pre- enlightenment practice of Geomantic divination as a ’logical system’ for guidance. I have found that these directional methods have strong performative inclinations, and my proposal for a residency is to explore the potential for performativity in relation to drawing a line, casting a reading and positioning /locating oneself within the world. The sextant and geomancy both present comparatively primitive, yet elaborate, means for location in relation to modern technologies, and in light of my amateur training—failure becomes inevitable. My pursuit becomes decidedly more quixotic as I attempt to orient myself with these tools in a new space/city/country: even if I attain my goal and deduce my coordinates, I wonder what use the result will be to me—providing only a point in virtual space related to latitude and longitude, without any indication of where I truly might be in the actual world or how I might get home. The inevitable failure of a graphic understanding of place and location is foregrounded in this pursuit. The inverse to this failure is the ability of this graphic representation to trick or convince the viewer of a reality convincingly represented yet entirely fabricated, here the artist becomes charlatan, a trickster that can circumvent the structures in place with ordered disorder. These are the themes I am hoping to research during my residency.
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June 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - JULIA HITCHCOCK (USA) The concentrated block of time devoted to creative research directly corresponds to the volume of work created. I have the ability to work with a very diverse group of personalities and find that these are always great opportunities for visual problem solving and aesthetic discourse. I believe maintaining a sense of flexibility is critical to achieving an optimum experience in a residency where the studio and environment is different than ones usual practice. I plan to execute drawings in charcoal, chalk and acrylic paint on paper. I wish to remain open to their construction and my response to the environment in Caylus, France. I expect the working environment and cultural exchange to have a significant and important impact on the creation of my visual imagery. My work typically employs raw and expressionistic marks countered with areas that are more controlled and carefully articulated to create visual tensions and counter thrusts. I find theses passages are necessary to evoke emotive response. I intentionally leave areas gritty where the surface is dense with multiple layers of paint, charcoal, and chalk that translate into levels of shift and movement. The drawings contain a historicity of marking vocabulary that comments on mistrials, hopeful starts, human frailty, and re-evaluations. The painted areas are often left flat without modulation of tonal values to create a sense of ambiguity, lack of conviction and spatial confusion. This material manipulation pictorially aides in the narrative content without being literal or didactic. Plasticity and the more formal elements of design are under constant evaluation and revision as I carefully weigh my aesthetic choices and the impact they may exert on the thematic development of each drawing within the scope of the project.
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June/July 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - MIO HANAOKA (JAPAN) One of the biggest subjects of my works is how to grip relationships in durational time. I want spectators to feel that everything changes all the time, even now. All the objects, including myself, are transforming in order to adjust ourselves to every present moment. We tend to look for a place to stay to make us comfortable, but there is nowhere to stay same. So, I’d like to show the variable present which contains trace of past and also smell of future. I’m mainly working on variable material such as rotten stuff, growing/withered plants, floating objects on the water, burnt objects, etc. Since I’m working with these kinds of materials, I cannot control a situation perfectly. I just arrange a situation as a conductor would, then materials start playing with their “will”. When I feel I cannot control a situation perfectly, paradoxically I feel I’m a part of nature, or an environment surrounding me. The materials make me feel each individual cannot divide itself from the world. That’s why I’m working with materials that are changing unpredictably. And I believe that people who appreciate my works feel the same way. During this residency period, I would like to develop these ideas in a specific environment. I’m interested in the natural environment around the residency. My choice of material is usually the combination of what you are used to seeing in daily life and unusual situations in these circumstances, so I would like to propose a parallel project in two places, one is in nature, and the other the gallery space. I’d like to think about the relationship within these two places and make unpredictable variable installations.
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May/June 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ANDREA POR (CANADA) The underlying theme of my work is informed by the human condition, i.e., the will to power and its subsequent effects of fear, doubt, anxiety and isolation. I am interested in these emotions and how they contend and relate to the enormity of the world and the ephemerality of life itself. What happens to my achievements and will to power after I die? Who will remember me? To what purpose does my individual will to meaning serve on a grand scale? In my current work I am addressing these questions through an understanding of the self in a body. I am depicting what it is to be in a body, and in many ways I am painting what it is to be in my body. These bodies are in a state of flux or change. For me they are captured in a process of deterioration where there is no one to maintain them and no one to give the body a meaning. In my mind this is representative of the ephemeral quality of being human. I hope to use this current exploration as a launch pad for the work that I intend to develop during my residency. I intend to create a body of work that is conceptually informed by the human experience, but to draw upon my experience in France and the influence of working and living in a foreign country. In terms of material and media, I have worked largely in two- dimensional mediums: painting and drawing. More recently I have experimented with installation work, trying to push my painting and drawing practices into a more contemporary and experimental process. During my residency I hope to be able to continue to work in an interdisciplinary fashion, exploring the different forms that can be used to convey my ideas. I would like to continue my practice painting and drawing in addition to working with sculptural elements (found objects, clay and casting). By the end of my residency it is my goal to have a group of work that is both conceptually and materially expressive of my experience in France as an artist and as an individual searching the world for the path to self-meaning.
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April 2012 (rescheduled)
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - DAVID NECHAK (USA) I want to establish a dialogue between several locations in an environment whereby existing objects with coded colors result in connecting site lines between the objects in the landscape. This might be relating to how painters move color throughout an image to connect different areas within the painting. My desired result would be to encourage people to walk from one location to another to realize the conceptual connections between the objects. In regard to my choice of materials I can use fabric having color, painted papers or painted objects or words of colors or all of the above. The project in a visual sense relates to 'tagging' in a respectful manner. David Nechak has a faculty position at the Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington.
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February/ March 2012
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - ANOOK CLEONE (HOLLAND) The theme ‘trust’ is a recurrent theme in Anook Cléonne’s drawing. Recently she has worked for over 7 months in several banks as an artist in residence investigating and exploring what is possibly needed in today's current financial turmoil to relocate the trust banks once held in the public’s mind. Anook often works with the idea of landscape as a metaphor for the social landscape with its ever changing social organisation. She examines in her drawing the consequences of not completing form in any immediate sense but rather to allow time and reflection to influence other possibilities toward an arrival of a concrete idea. During her stay at DRAWinternational it is Anook’s intention to construct a series of visual notes which will contribute to a set of drawings entitled: Fallow Land & Root Causes.
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September/October 2011
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - KAZUKI NAKAHARA (JAPAN) I would like to be engaged during my residency in making new drawings. My theme, "oracle bone scrip", was the beginning of a script which originally came from China around 3000 years ago. They were made by observing nature and writing those responses on animal bones or turtle shells. These ancient forms are powerful means for communication and have been an inspiration for my own motif. I would like to continue to explore these ideas and intend to present work made as a floor and wall installation in the studios/gallery of Drawinternational in Caylus. wwww.kazukinakahara.com 'Kazuki Nakahara is a graduate of Hanns Schimansky's school of drawing. Born in Japan, he came to Berlin in 2005 to study with Schimansky. Shaped by his family's tradition - his father is a calligrapher - he has found a place in European art. With impressively precise pencil lines or ink strokes, he began making intuitive depictions of familiar objects on white paper. First they were oversized toothbrushes that danced in abstract space; later he reinvented the typical young girl's hairstyle - tightly bound, short pigtails. Parted hair tied tightly on both sides is one of Kazuki Nakahara's typical motifs which he investigates in many variations, sometimes floating freely in groups or as an individual form. Now, on large format paper placed on the floor, he meditatively makes circles, stroke by stroke. Nakahara's strictly controlled, linked lines and his spherical shapes, can be transformed in one's fantasies to billiard tables on which the "Parting-Award" is played for, they sweep out over our window sills and become magical heavenly bodies'. Inga Kondeyne
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August 2011
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - DIETMAR FLORENCE RITTNER (HAWAII) I want to create a breakthrough, furthering contemporary expression in my visual art, letting go of form, uprooting conceptions and challenging the mind; through immersion in a new space within the specific regional culture of Southwest France, and through exchange and collaboration with other professional artists. Architectural formations and lines inspire me, Caylus' cobble ways and house entrances, the gothic arches of its marketplace, as well as the natural surrounding landscape of the Pyrenees mountain lines. The light of Southern France and the contrasts it generates, inspires me. Unique people and their expressions inspire me, and I look forward to interactions with the local population of the village. My purpose is to create visual art that is emotionally challenging, expressing harmony and disorder simultaneously. During the one-month residency at DRAWinternational, I want to research the effect of surrounding space on emotional expression. I plan to walk the village and take photos of 3-dimensional formations and lines; then overlay and transpose the outer images into the abstract; improvising with lines, form and color in the framework of 2-dimensional visual art.
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May/June 2011
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - SARA SCHNECKLOTH (USA) At DRAWinternational, I would like to focus on developing a series of participatory interactive drawings that integrate vision and touch, and explore connections between the material practice of drawing and the local ecological systems around Caylus, France. I have been developing and showing participatory drawings for the past year, and I am eager to further develop the theoretical and practical aspects of this project through a residency at DRAWinternational. I define drawing as an expansive markmaking process, one that includes traditional rendering approaches combined with three-dimensional elements and new media. As a discipline, drawing is often referred to as ‘the thought process made visible,’ and promotes experimental methods of manifesting ideas. In my practice, I place this ethic of experimentation at the forefront, and invite participants to engage with the visual imagery and physical principles of science, while interacting with drawings that ask for their physical and aesthetic input. My goal is to develop a series of new drawings inspired by local natural systems, and to write critically about the theoretical underpinnings of the project. I would like to engage specifically with the local riparian systems, stone quarries, and flora that is unique to the Midi-Pyrenees. Each drawing would evoke a local natural system in flux, and point to the connections between them. I would utilize a range of traditional drawing materials and grounds, and experiment with new ways of integrating participatory elements into the pieces. My hope is to discover connections between drawing material and the natural environment, and uncover insights into how we interact with both. Conceptually, this drawing project engages with several concerns: What can drawing uniquely uncover and express about our physical and material experiences? What can be learned about an image, an idea, and sensory perception by examining a surface with both vision and touch? How do we interact with each other through art that asks for our participation? How do science and imagination inform each other? Taken on a larger level, these questions form the core of my research interest in drawing, embodiment, phenomenology, and participatory social networks. I believe that a residency experience at DRAW International would push my work in exciting new directions, in both theory and practice. Sara Schneckloth teaches drawing and critical practice at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. www.saraschneckloth.com
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March/April 2011
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BEN SHEPPARD (AUSTRALIA) My process often involves the production of 3D drawings or ‘Idea Objects.’ These objects operate as drawings whereby the concept that ‘the thinking happens in the making’ is at the core of their creation. Lines are edited during manufacture in a way similar to those made and erased with charcoal or graphite and an eraser. The lineal aesthetic affects a feeling of an artefact that operates somewhere between the idea of something and the object that it represents. I intend, during the course of the residency, to substitute 'Idea Objects' into everyday contexts and will immerse myself into the local environment and culture to consider relevant subjects – particularly national and local icons. I look forward to producing a series of drawings (including some on photographic images) and small sculptures whilst being open to collaborative projects at DRAWinternational.
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October/November 2010
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE - BRITT SALT (AUSTRALIA) During this residency I would like to develop works and research around the idea of ‘Klein Knot’; which I have re-coined as something spatial, movable and in flux, with the potential to incite us to re-orientate ourselves within the immediate spaces we inhabit. The “Klein Knot” installations may occur unexpectedly in public space, where, as the viewer moves closer to the facets of the installation, each part begins to turn and warp its shape. A knot has a strong sense of stability associated with it; it is a serious notion, with a functional strong hold. Yet an installation of tussling objects, three dimensional lines, or “Klein Knots”, which reposition themselves to constantly bring about a sense of instability, groundlessness and fragility in the viewer, as it is encountered. In France, I would like to use this time and idea of the “Klein Knot”, described, to consider how our influence on a given space might track our presence within it. Stated another way, how our effect and interaction within a space, has the potential to place us there, and how without that interaction we may be seemingly displaced and undetected by that space. In the past seven years I have developed a high standing in the Australian arts community, with solo exhibitions attracting positive reviews, contemporary art awards across the country and a nomination as one of Australia’s 50 Most Collectable Artists. Undertaking this residency, at this point in my career, would provide the unprecedented opportunity for me to focus on new studio work in an international environment.
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