Drawing in Conversation
Présentation du BéPI à DRN2023 Drawing in Relation: Dialogic Exchange, une série de rencontres organisées par le Drawing Research Network, Londonborough University, UK. 15 mars 2023
https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/tracey/drn2023-drawing-in-relation-dialogic-exchange/
Drawing is a dialogue. A dialogue both internal — within itself as an artefact and in practice — and external — extending beyond itself to other drawings, people, and practices. In this sense, the relational aspects of its practice situate drawing within assemblages contingent on temporal, material, and investigative dimensions, or, in other words, as a situated process of making sense.
Understanding drawing practice in this way invites us to reconsider the way in which it may be mediated. When focusing on a single drawing practice, mediation limits the capacity and desire of a drawing practice for dialogue. To fully engage with the dialogical aspects of drawing, we suggest that it is necessary to read the temporal, material, and investigative dimensions of individual practices in conversation with others, provoking encounters, and opening practices to others as to a wider and unforeseen audience.
This paper presents the design and curatorial position developed for Drawing Conversations, a recent exhibition presented at the Centre de design in Montréal, Canada, for which the two authors were co-curators. The exhibition brought together 70 drawings from 14 different internationally renowned practices. With drawings exhibited in free-standing pairs across the exhibition space, the exhibition fostered the active experience of a conversation in progress rather than the reception of a curated monologue. In this exchange, a collective translation of drawing practice occurred in which the specific objectives and significations of single drawings were not subsumed, but dialogically expanded. By bringing together drawings and the public in conversation, the exhibition prolonged the dialogues of practice into a shared exercise of making sense.
Présentation du site DRN2023:
This panel brings together researchers looking at aspects of dialogic exchange. Carole Lévesque and Thomas-Bernard Kenniff will reflect on the design and curatorial position developed for ‘Drawing Conversations,’ a recent exhibition presented at the Centre de design in Montréal, Canada, for which the two presenters were co-curators. They will consider the relational aspects of drawing practice and situate it within assemblages contingent on temporal, material, and investigative dimensions, or, in other words, as a situated process of making sense. Marili de Weerdt will discuss ‘The Art of Climbing a tree’ a body of collaborative artworks that investigate the ways in which the act of drawing can be seen as a form of communication and interaction between the human and non-human. de Weerdt will suggest that collaborative drawing offers new perspectives on the interconnectedness of things and suggest that the act of drawing can be a means of fostering a more respectful relationship with the non-human natural world. Susan Turcot will discuss a collaboration with forest researchers and participants in which a set of interactive drawn cards continues to evolve around climate (change) and its effect on the phenological cycle of trees. Turcot will share the relationships that have emerged through this drawing practice with birch and birch users as well as with scientists and members of the public in both urban and rural contexts.
Photo: Michel Brunelle