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PROJECTS
SIDEWALK DRAWINGS
One day while walking I stumbled onto a probably accidental arrangement
of a few twigs on a sidewalk corner, it was a simple and abstract configuration
that caught my eye especially since it resembled a style of drawing I had previously
worked in (ink drawings on cardboard), in my studio. This discovery set off
a project that I intermittently worked on for the next eight months and called
it (Collaborative) Sidewalk Drawings.
My initial and instinctive response was to find more twigs (which
the eucalyptus trees in the immediate area had dropped plenty of, on the ground
around there) and continue on what almost seemed like an already started
drawing by somebody else. I liked the idea of 'unfinished drawings', and the
form of site-specific drawing with naturally present materials and the subsequent
relation it helped develop with the site. This was eeven before I learned of
Andy Goldsworthy's work, that he does in (often isolated) nature. To me
this process was about developing a relation with a (use) place; and indirectly
inviting others to do the same. We typically assume, especially with commonly
used public spaces, that the forming of those sites is out of our control; they
are as they are made for us. It became a project that was about how we
create our spaces through how we use and choose to relate to them or not. We
make our world. And we have the inherent creative power to make it more of our
world by engaging it in a dialogue, the artist's way. This is true even for seemingly
trivial places like this one sidewalk at a campus street corner.
Initially I operated in relative secrecy, intending to leave my markmaking as
anonymous interventions to be possibly found later and hopefully contributed
to. Over time however, it would happen that people would see me work in concentration,
collecting and arranging twigs, seedpots, etc. and ask me what I was doing? I
would explain, and invite them to at any point join me or contribute. Some would
say they already had noticed or even enjoyed the mysterious occcasional arrangements.
Over time others did get involved; and often in my absence. The temporary drawings
would just as often be overlooked, or accidently destroyed. It was a windy corner
at times, so the weather would also regularly disperse or erase the drawings-in-process.
So did the gardeners in their automated lawn mower mobiles,
until I spoke to them. Conversations with others taught me lots of things about
that particular area, its elements of nature, and the people that frequented
it. The feedback I got was encouraging, and felt like a meaningful exchange,
contributing to new insights. I learned that by spending attentive time in a
place you can develop a relation and bring change. I also learned about
the possibilities of directly interacting with audiences, not a natural inclination
for someone like me who was for a long time focused on a studio based practice.
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OVERVIEW |
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Title: |
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Sidewalk
Drawings
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Place
& Dates: |
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Oakland
A Mills College campus street corner |
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Nov.
2003 - Jun. 2004 |
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Project
consisted out of: |
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The
creation of unfinished abstract drawings, created from natural
debris found on and near the same streetcorner where the 'drawings'
were left, as invitations for further collaboration with
any accidental passers-by. The project continued for eight
months. |
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