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

Second Sight: A Cold Hand on a Cold Day by Jordan Baseman. Fabrica, Brighton, 2013.

A Cold Hand on a Cold Day – an exhibition by Jordan Baseman held at Fabrica, Brighton.

The exhibition consisted of three films:

A Cold Hand on a Cold Day - a site-specific commission by Fabrica, narrated by a funeral director from Brighton who discusses her reasons for not using the embalming process in her practice. The film was shown in the main part of the gallery – the windows had been covered so the main light source was from the film which consisted of mainly black and white images of clouds passing across the screen – sometimes slowly sometimes quickly, between the images of clouds were sections of film which consisted of white scratches and flecks on a black background which wiggled across the screen. Baseman created the grainy feel to the images by handling the film during developing which he processed using large buckets.

Two further films by Baseman were shown in a smaller part of the gallery:

The Old Blood – which features the voice of Geoff Taylor, who has embalmed 30,000 people over a 40 year career, during the film Taylor, describes the techniques used to embalm a person and the work that goes into reconstructing the appearance of the deceased if needed. The images used by Baseman for this film are a series of old colour and black and white cine films of individuals, friends and families enjoying life, included within the clips is footage of a young man being embalmed.

How to Manage Stillness – narrated by Dr Kate Woodthorpe from the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath highlights the life force of a person being impossible to recreate once gone and the importance of living life to the full which can often get forgotten through the mundane everyday things we do. The images in this film are from a funeral home and capture a lot of behind the scenes footage of storage fridges, trolleys and empty coffins.

All the films were around 20minutes each so for Second Sight we had time to watch two of them – A Cold Hand on a Cold Day and The Old Blood.

Both the Second Sight sessions for this exhibition were supported by new participants although numbers were down on the usual level of participation for the workshops – talking to some of Second Sights regular attendees it was suggested that this was likely to have been as a result of the content of the exhibition which although very interesting can be a difficult subject to discuss for some – so we were really pleased that both of the sessions ended with fascinating discussions triggered by the exhibition content, object handling and poetry.

We began the session by watching A Cold Hand on a Cold Day, Hattie gave a description of the visual elements of the film before it started, as we did not want to talk over the audio of the film while it was playing, everyone watching was given the option of having a blanket around their shoulders – which could act as a ‘hug’ if needed and also for a bit of extra warmth.

A Cold Hand on a Cold Day: Image by Daniel Yanez Gonzalez.

The second film – The Old Blood, was in a small side room off the main gallery space, again Hattie gave a description of the visual elements of the film partly so as not to talk over the audio but also because the audience had to wear headphones to hear the narration by Geoff Taylor.

The Old Blood: Image by Daniel Yanez Gonzalez.

Once both films had finished the groups returned to the table for drinks, object handling and discussion.

For the exhibition a large round table was built at one end of the gallery which was perfect for the objects we had to handle, these included myrrh, frankincense, seed heads, rosemary, old photographs, autumn leaves, apples, a tea set and lots of biscuits!

Tea and discussion: images by Daniel Yanez Gonzalez.

The discussions were very varied at both of the workshops, the presentation and content of the two films caused a lot of debate - the majority of people having no idea of the process involved with embalming, giving them to chance to consider what they would want for themselves. The participants at Second Sight were incredibly open about their experiences with death sharing with the group regrets about decisions made at difficult times and the appreciation of the skill involved with disguising injuries that may affect the appearance of the deceased.

Everyone in both sessions had an opinion on the combination of image and audio of the works – some feeling the audio was powerful enough to stand alone and the accompanying images were distracting, others felt the images spoke louder than the words. Several people commented on the meditative qualities of the black and white clouds from Cold Hand and the warmer feelings created by the cine films in Old Blood.

The environmental impact of embalming was discussed and the variety of more ecological funerals available today. One of the sessions was just after the disaster in the Philippines so we had been watching distressing images of mass graves being dug and filled with un-named people on the news – this triggered a debate on the planning of funerals as being something of a luxury or a privilege which may not always be appreciated.

The objects for handling triggered memories of friends and family mainly through smell, one participant  in particular found the smell of myrrh took him straight back to his grandmother’s house.

Object handling: image by Daniel Yanez Gonzalez.

The various seed heads and fruits seemed to capture the importance of past and future life in the beauty of the spent flowers or sweetness of the fruit which also held within them the seeds of future generations. Participants discussed the aging process and the effects – good and bad that people who have been part of our lives, can have the ability to go on influencing us even after they have gone.

Image by Daniel Yanez Gonzalez.

More Photo's from Second Sight - Resonance Exhibition - July 2013

Above Photographs by Eva Kalpadaki

Photographs by Nadja Derungs