The Exhibition

Where do You Draw the Line? 22nd May – 4th July 2010

Where do you Draw the Line? has now been installed at Bargate Monument Gallery, Southampton. The show is testament to the wide range of methodologies and approaches to drawing demonstrated by the exhibiting artists. Conversely the exhibition unites these diverse artists in a shared enthusiasm for experimental and creative drawing practice meaning that this exhibition, unlike many drawing shows which can seem dry and uninteresting, has a vibrancy which draws the audience into the artists ideas.

The artists were invited to make work for the show based on their own unique investigations into drawing practice and in response to the site, space and environment of the gallery. Each in their own way finding a response to the challenge set by the curator, to push the boundaries of drawing, to bring drawing off the page and into the real world.

Below is a summary of each of the exhibiting artists work featured in this exhibition:

Katie Jean Howe
Somewhere Over the Payroll, Electrical Tape on Wall, 2010.

Working in her usual method using electrical tape to create large scale wall murals with a contemporary narrative Katie begins her work as low resolution, heavily pixilated, drawings on computer. Once fully constructed the work is then painstakingly transferred to the wall in tape whilst maintaining the fractured and free-hand quality of line achieved in her original drawing. The drawing style heightens the disillusionment and social disintegration that are inherent in the work. The means employed to create the work points to the disparity between spontaneous drawing and the meticulous recreation of that first mark making through a new, more structured process; creating a work that hangs between chaos and control in both its subject matter and appearance.

Greig Burgoyne
Out of the World, Ink on Wall, 2010

Greig Burgoyne’s large scale drawings are a concoction of signs and symbols which can lead the viewer to a number of conclusions. The piece created for this exhibition is in direct response to the Bargate gallery space, which can feel like an oasis of calm above the hectic commerce of Southampton City Centre. The drawing on the main wall are a swirling collection of overwhelming forces, moving weather systems, nuclear fission, consumerist objects with eyes always watching. On the opposing wall a headless figure, weighed down by a grid-like jacket, a single eye peering out, possible directions swirling round where his head should be, tries to make his escape from this overwhelming world.

Kristy Campbell
Anomalous Milieu Studies 1-4, Pencil on Paper, 2010.

Kristy Campbell’s work combines drawing with her interest in sculptural objects and architectural spaces and their impact on the individuals experience of threat and vulnerability combined with the shelter and protection implied by architecture. In creating this new series of works the artist has inverted large scale commercial spaces to unsettle the viewer. Taking out all the signs and visual references that the viewer can use to place themselves, the spaces give the environments the feeling of sci-fi movie sets or abstracted anonymous prisons.

Jeannie Driver and Mike Blackman
Extra-Mural, GPS Drawing System Software, 2010.

Jeannie Driver and Mike Blackman and developed a computer system that allows gallery visitors to participate in a giant “brass rubbing” buy creating their own drawings in real space using a GPS system. There is more information about how this project works hanging on the wall next to the projected digital drawing.

Alys Scott-Hawkins, Jo Hummel-Newell, Katie Howe and Kate Grenyer
Sundial Project, Live drawing event and film, 2010.
Film by Nikki Dixon and Alys Scott-Hawkins, Stills Photography Jesús San Migúel

This film and drawing project has been created especially for Where do you Draw the Line? and was the idea of the participating artists coming from discussions on collaborative and site specific drawing ideas. The artists wanted to make work in direct  response to the presence of the building. Taking inspiration from the sundial on the south side of the Bargate the artists elected to trace the shadow of the building as it moved throughout the day. The results have been captured in the film on display in the gallery. Including some unexpected participation from a City Council street sweeper!

Alys Scott-Hawkins
Sketchbook, Mixed Media on Paper, 2010.

The artist’s sketchbook is normally a highly personal document. Artist and Film Maker Alys Scott-Hawkins is a prolific user of sketch books in developing her work and also as a personal document to record her own relationship with the world. Alys has opened up her sketch making to the gallery by presenting her current sketchbook. The most recent images in the piece have been created in the Bargate building including images drawn looking out of the window at the streets below. The artist has also added to the sketchbook by posting images back from a recent visit to France – allowing her to continue her sketch-making whilst keeping her sketchbook on display.

Martin Symons
How to Draw and Egg, Ongoing Mixed Media Installation, 2010.

Martin Symons invites you to help him to draw an egg.
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Kate Grenyer
The Road to Tyneham and the Footpath of Warbarrow Bay is CLOSED
Pencil on Paper, 2010.

Kate Grenyer moved from creating installations to primarily focussing on drawing as the main means of exploring her ideas. The exhibited piece, the start of a new body of work on abandoned communities, blurs the line between drawing and installation. Using the sculptural form of the paper to add to the work, apparently a drawing of wallpaper, whose sparse repeat pattern echos the bleak atmosphere of an abandoned home. The repeat pattern of the wallpaper also allowed Kate to repeat the process of drawing the same object, emphasising human error and the fact that no one image is ever a perfect representation of a thing. Where most images of homes in domestic settings are idealised, these houses vary far from the ideal deviating further from the original each time an image is drawn.

Jo Hummel Newell
Grace and …thy Guide
amusing du
Comets
A Kiss
all Ink and Mixed Media on Paper, 2010.

Jo Hummel-Newell works traverse the line between control and chance. In making her work the artist attempts to remove conscious thought from her decision making process, trying to keep her work as random and un-thought as possible. The difficulty in doing this brings a tension to her images, asking whether it is possible to create a work that has not been composed. Bringing her work further into the realms of chance she uses found images which fall onto the page and create the structure of her compositions.

Birgitte Haahr Lund
There is a Lady in the Hallway
Digital Archival Print on Paper, 2010.

Birgitte begins all her drawings and image making from a conceptual viewpoint. Here she is exploring the idea of memory and description through her drawing. Birgitte worked with medium Leslie George to create her imagery. She invited Leslie to spend some time in the bargate investigating the spirit world that may be present in the building. From the characters and experiences he described to her she created this work which brings to life some of the Bargate’s more hidden visitors. Buy engaging in these conversations Birgitte also explores the nature of translation through drawing by translating someone elses visions onto the page.

Trish Bould, Charlotte Knox-Williams and Kathy Oldridge
Infinite Harmonics
Mixed Media Installation, 2010.
and
Unfolding the Event
Drawing a Line of ‘infinite harmonics through interaction and exchange’
Participatory Event Held at 3am on the roof of the Bargate Monument building, Saturday 29th May 2010.

Trish Bould was invited to develop work for Where Do You Draw The Line? based on her experimental approach to drawing in relation to buildings and architecture and as a collaborative process. For the exhibition she chose to collaborate with Charlotte Knox-Wiliams and Kathy Oldridge to create this installation based on their on going project Infinite Harmonics.

The drawing and mixed media installation is the trace of an event which occurred at Winchester Cathedral, in collaboration with musicians, film makers and video artists, where participants used each others work and the surrounding architecture and environment to create a drawings in sound, film and on paper. These traces have been translated to the exhibition in the Bargate through this installation, recreating the atmosphere of the initial event as an echo between the two medieval spaces.

As a continuation of this project the artists staged the Unfolding Event on the roof of the Bargate Monument. Continuing their exploration of constructed spaces through drawing collaboratively in the environment the artists explored the Bargate roof as a space where you feel simultaneously outside and inside; with a physical connection to both the interior of the gallery and it’s surrounding environment being made through views and sounds. The traces of this experience will be taken forward to inform a future installation or other record of the work. When this happens the experience will be posted on the blog… check back for more details.