reblog: Performance, Mapping, and Projection at Marking Space

The summer is flying by as workshops continue at Marking Space: A Drawing Research Lab at Skol Centre in Montreal. Our first lab resident, Cameron Forbes, paved the way with Workshop One: Shadow Mapping. Here, participants explored drawing as a means to be sensitive to changes in light and movement in physical space. This is often how drawing emerges in Cameron's practice - as a means to re-locate or re-familiarize herself with her surroundings. Workshop participants practiced this, following shadows as they moved among chairs, tables, and still-life obstacles.

Santiago Tavera joined this investigation for Workshop 2: Translating Projections, introducing digital drawings and projection. With a shared interest in mapping, the artists posed questions around the relationship between 3D and 2D space, investigating drawing as a means to explore the opportunities and limitations of each. What happens when we translate something from the 3D world into a 2D representation- what is lost/ changed/ misinterpreted/ exaggerated? Tavera explores this in his digital renderings of space and shadow, translating them into graphic animations.

Participants were asked to consider the properties of the physical world (the dynamics of light, shadow, gravity, mass) as their own drawing language. The group explored these ideas using traditional mark-making tools, as well as light, live-feed cameras, tape, plexi-glass and sculptural materials to create collaborative drawings in space.

Last week we were led by Beth Frey in Workshop 3: Performance, Mark, and Action. Here, participants were asked to explore the ceremonial, or performative act of mark-making - using drawing as a place to track movement, note habit, or establish relationships between things, in particular, the body. For Frey, the ceremonial aspect of drawing is important - and she encouraged others to embrace this, providing masks, gloves, and other disguises, as a means of developing a "persona" around your mark-making. How can you embody intention, and make it felt in a mark? Questions like these surfaced during this fun (but messy) session.

CHECK OUT THE ORIGINAL POST HERE