Situating Drawing: Between Technique and Deskilling, Institution and Public, Pedagogy and Social Practice
May 2017
After shifting focus away from an insular drawing practice and towards the spaces and discourses of socially engaged art, I began to establish an interest in the intersection between drawing and pedagogy. Utilising the classical educational format of the art workshop has allowed me to introduce the possibilities of drawing to a number of different groups and to experience the varying effects that this has. Within the roles of artist, teacher, and the spaces between, I have approached each workshop with different strategies and expectations, and as a result I have found myself attentive to the enunciation of social binaries. Singular ideologies that are accentuated within workshop practice such as “artist,” “non-artist,” “capable,” and “incapable” can produce boundaries that separate one group of people from another and prevent access. In these pedagogical spaces it has been my aim to carefully and temporarily dismantle hierarchies that appear to be consequences of inhibitory boundaries, and to explore the possibilities of art practice to mobilise these otherwise fixed structures. It is not my intention to create a mass revolution through the potential of art making, but instead to highlight the precarious nature of these boundaries and to show that they are passable. In many cases the passing of boundaries is neither helpful nor necessary; many people have no desire to be engaged in art or art making and we should not expect to change that. However, I have seen that the unusual discursive spaces that can be accessed through practice are useful for many, firstly by locating the underlying reasons for disengagement and then, if desired, in making use of a space where people can temporarily step away from these reasons.
Working within this space is something I aim to do within my studio practice, as I concentrate on depicting things that can no longer be seen. By using basic drawing methods to try to make sense of mental imagery, I become dislocated from the present; patterns and mark making become visual languages to communicate past sensory information and imaginary landscapes. With distant memory images as a starting point, I am forced into a duality where I am both on the inside and the outside; much of my work naturally takes an aerial view as I look down onto the scene that I am no longer part of. The main research for this text takes the form of three case studies, and it is within these three settings that the foundations for further research and analysis have been formed. I use my experiences and observations in these separate pedagogical spaces to then navigate around complex issues surrounding community engagement, the institutional public, and the role of drawing practices within art. By first examining the definitions of community practice and using theoretical insights to demonstrate the positives and negatives of community on a more general level, the community arts genre and the role of the artist can then be approached. The aim is to unpick the potential issues within this negotiation and to explore examples of community arts projects and their positioning within the intricate relations between artist and community. This then leads into an analysis of the institutional public, primarily through a discussion of the fluidity of the term “public,” followed by a scrutinisation of pre-existing institutional structures in regard to inclusivity and exclusivity. Exploring the genre of public art in relation to the public within the museum means that typical pedagogical methods employed by gallery educators and artists can be investigated and problematised. The text ends with a reflection upon the potential roles and expectations of drawing practice within the greater picture of art and the public sphere.
View full text pg. 309
May 2017
After shifting focus away from an insular drawing practice and towards the spaces and discourses of socially engaged art, I began to establish an interest in the intersection between drawing and pedagogy. Utilising the classical educational format of the art workshop has allowed me to introduce the possibilities of drawing to a number of different groups and to experience the varying effects that this has. Within the roles of artist, teacher, and the spaces between, I have approached each workshop with different strategies and expectations, and as a result I have found myself attentive to the enunciation of social binaries. Singular ideologies that are accentuated within workshop practice such as “artist,” “non-artist,” “capable,” and “incapable” can produce boundaries that separate one group of people from another and prevent access. In these pedagogical spaces it has been my aim to carefully and temporarily dismantle hierarchies that appear to be consequences of inhibitory boundaries, and to explore the possibilities of art practice to mobilise these otherwise fixed structures. It is not my intention to create a mass revolution through the potential of art making, but instead to highlight the precarious nature of these boundaries and to show that they are passable. In many cases the passing of boundaries is neither helpful nor necessary; many people have no desire to be engaged in art or art making and we should not expect to change that. However, I have seen that the unusual discursive spaces that can be accessed through practice are useful for many, firstly by locating the underlying reasons for disengagement and then, if desired, in making use of a space where people can temporarily step away from these reasons.
Working within this space is something I aim to do within my studio practice, as I concentrate on depicting things that can no longer be seen. By using basic drawing methods to try to make sense of mental imagery, I become dislocated from the present; patterns and mark making become visual languages to communicate past sensory information and imaginary landscapes. With distant memory images as a starting point, I am forced into a duality where I am both on the inside and the outside; much of my work naturally takes an aerial view as I look down onto the scene that I am no longer part of. The main research for this text takes the form of three case studies, and it is within these three settings that the foundations for further research and analysis have been formed. I use my experiences and observations in these separate pedagogical spaces to then navigate around complex issues surrounding community engagement, the institutional public, and the role of drawing practices within art. By first examining the definitions of community practice and using theoretical insights to demonstrate the positives and negatives of community on a more general level, the community arts genre and the role of the artist can then be approached. The aim is to unpick the potential issues within this negotiation and to explore examples of community arts projects and their positioning within the intricate relations between artist and community. This then leads into an analysis of the institutional public, primarily through a discussion of the fluidity of the term “public,” followed by a scrutinisation of pre-existing institutional structures in regard to inclusivity and exclusivity. Exploring the genre of public art in relation to the public within the museum means that typical pedagogical methods employed by gallery educators and artists can be investigated and problematised. The text ends with a reflection upon the potential roles and expectations of drawing practice within the greater picture of art and the public sphere.
View full text pg. 309
