The invisible elastic membrane. Carving a line on both sides

The invisible elastic membrane. carving a line on both sides

Derek’s comments on ‘carving a line’ reminded me of another approach to this.

When attention was dropping, as it often did over a long drawing session, there were ways to get people to refocus; in particular when students were engaged in a line drawing that was meant to describe a figure in space. This could be a life drawing session or an early in the year drawing situation working from large geometric forms made from a metal space-frame and chalk-line and string geometries that ran across the studio floor.

Patrick (again it was usually Patrick as he was such a good theatrical) would stride out to the centre of the room holding two straight lengths of 2 by 1 timber. He would proceed to lift them up, holding them at arms’ length and then clap them together. The noise of course getting everyone’s attention.

He would then explain that these two lengths of wood had been coated in a powerful glue and that if he put them together he would find it very difficult to get them apart. Then putting the two lengths together he would mime the attempt to separate them. Struggling manfully he would fail, begin to sweat and struggle with himself, and at some point would ask a student to help him or someone like myself. (A quick whisper into said student’s ear to the effect that this was all mime play) and then both would be pulling away, Patrick holding one length the student another. Gradually as if trying to pull away from a very powerful magnet the lengths would come apart, sometimes Patrick would appear to stumble with the effort and he would allow the lengths to snap back together, but eventually a trembling shaking pair of hands would be holding the two vertical lengths apart. He would then, taking both lengths into his own hands, keep the tension going but proceed to tip first one and then the other off the vertical. As he did this he would get everyone to watch the invisible membrane that surrounded the lengths and think of it as a sticky thin film that could be twisted as it was stretched between the two lengths.  Standing the two lengths on the floor he would then make then both vertical again and this time slowly and carefully move the tops apart, now creating subtle angles between each other and the floor.

Now students could look again at the environment they were drawing, could they see the membrane existing invisibly all the time within the object divided space they were drawing. The two lengths were he would state, ‘carving’ the space. Cutting into it in very subtle ways that could be re-created by carving the lines they were drawing.

Carving the lines in this case often meant rubbing into the line from either side, shaping the lines very carefully, so that they started to bend into the space. Sometimes a line might have one section almost completely removed, but then re-instated as another line was adjusted and the first line now went too far back perhaps. Constant attention and adjustment was needed and as the paper built up a patina of mark surface because of the constant need for adjustment by rubbing out, these lines seemed to naturally start to fit, as if the energy of erasure was preparing the surface for the job in hand, each new mark now easier to establish because of the soft grey surface of erasure it was now bedding itself into.

This sort of relates to finding the surface of the paper, another eye tuning exercise, but more of that another time.

Terry Hammill sent me this image of Patrick Oliver in action. Never without the Park Drive of course.