Thursday 18 September 2014

Return to Fabrica - Second Sight for Ramzeichnung (Reflection) by Monika Grzymala


In August I carried out my first Second Sight workshops in a while, having been on Maternity leave during 2013. Looking at this blog I can see that Hattie lockhart-Smith and Katie Bailey delivered some fantastic workshops while I was away, and I'm pleased to say Hattie will be continuing to run Second Sight for the spring and autumn exhibitions and Katie will also continue to be involved. It was great to be back and I was particularly excited to be planning Second Sight in response to a drawing based exhibition, as the relates closely to my own practice http://deadrabbit-ablog.blogspot.co.uk/

Raumzeichnung (Reflection) was a site-specific installation on view at Fabrica in Summer 2014. The ephemeral art work addressed relationships between drawing and landscape, it was especially designed for Fabrica in Brighton. Raumzeichnung (German for ‘Drawing Spatially’) was created in the historic interior of the building with about 11 kilometers of silvery-mirroring tape. The sculptural drawing reflected the impressive architecture, light in the course of the day and the spectator walking around. Monika Grzymala installs her monumental pieces by herself and describes her temporary installations in kilometers of tape used in the process. The three-dimensional drawing Raumzeichnung (Reflection) at Fabrica emphasised the power of artistic creation and relationships between object of art, landscape, architecture and spectator.




When I came to plan the workshops I knew that a lot of drawing based workshops and events had been programmed around the exhibition, so I was keen that Second Sight could offer a slightly different take on this. The enormous silvery form in the gallery was defined as a 'spatial drawing' by the artist, challenging traditional notions of what a drawing comprises of. This had the potential for an exciting debate. I wondered what the workshop participants would think of the definition and if we could push the idea further whilst incorporating Second Sight's multi sensory focus? For example could we reinterpret the drawn line as a line of sound in the space?

In addition to this possible experiment with sound, I began to think about the physical stuff involved in drawing. If we were to talk about what drawing meant to us and how we would define it I felt a direct route to this could be through the feel and smell of the drawing ephemera itself. Therefore we began the workshops with a handling session (A 'sensory drawing feast') sniffing graphite, exploring the weight of crayons and the tactility of chalk and charcoal. Artist and fellow Fabrica work shop leader Jane Fordham kindly lent me some of her stash of drawing materials too, allowing us to explore more unusual drawing materials such as gravy powder and Vaseline. All of us have drawn at some point, however long ago, and it was interesting how the action of making a mark was not needed in order to be taken back to that point. The smell and feel of the drawing materials alone had evoked memories both pleasant and unpleasant for the participants.


After walking around and beneath the exhibition while I audio described, we had a discussion that for the most part focused on Grzymala's process and then the notion of a drawing being off the page and out into space. We touched upon the work's possible connection with landscape (it's reflective surface having parallels with that of the sea)

The process of creating the Ramzeichnung (Reflection) was admired on the whole. The sheer physical endurance of stretching and weaving line repeatedly to slice across such a large space, was seen as a great achievement. The group also seemed to like the presence of the artist's (unaided) hand in the work. This is something I have noticed comes up a lot in workshops, the more involved the artist hand is in the work (as apposed to subcontracting out a lot of the making) the more positive people tend to be towards that artist and their work. A drawing in space is ground breaking, but in the context of our discussion was it helped to 'still be a drawing' because of this solitary act of making where each line is the artist's own, just as it would be at a desk with pencil and paper?


Our discussion on the word Raumzeichnung (spacial drawing) also took a cynical turn; Is drawing constantly re-defining what it is in order to maintain it's relevance within contemporary art? Would this piece of work be as interesting if it were presented as sculpture? Whatever the answers this exhibition certainly provoked some interesting questions.





I had been a little nervous about trying out the re interpretation of a line as a line of sound in space, it was not something I could easily practice, or predict the participants reaction to as I had only worked with a few of them before. I decided to with hold it until the end of each workshop, gauging whether or not it felt right at that moment. Luckily It did feel right in each case as after the intensity of the discussions, moving out into the space was a refreshing change of gear that brought us directly back to the work.




Our 'task' was to slice fabrica with lines of sound, just as Grzymala had done with tape (an exciting prospect as the acoustics in Fabrica are as impressive as the visual space) I started by asking the participants to select their tools for sound (there were a number of things on offer, from the suggestion of the voice to wine glasses, sauce pans and wooden spoons) I then asked everyone to stand in a line in the centre of the space instructing the person at the back of the line to make a sound, then 'trigger' the person in front to by touching their shoulder, causing a domino effect that resulted in a line of sound. We repeated this line experimenting each time with speed and intensity of sound. I then asked the group to change formation, with everyone spread out around the gallery I ran between individuals tapping shoulders and triggering a sequence of lines of sound, that if seen would be something like a cats cradle

 Drawing represents for me the most honest gesture, the moment of truth when the paper and I breathe together, the line offering in its simplicity many variable forms of expression - Monika Grzymala
  

Naomi Kendrick