International Drawing Dialogue Phase 2, 2018 - Completed

Phase 2 of the drawing dialogue initiative has reached its culmination, with an exhibition from 12-19 July 2018 at the Educational Research Centre in the city of Katerini, northern Greece.

My work on this project began last November with four unresolved drawings that sprang from another project of mine employing frottage techniques to record textures on large rocks I found in the landscape in Hong Kong. The marks resulting from this process began to take on a certain character that I felt resembled some kind of language, albeit unknown. Keeping this thought in my mind as I worked, I imagined that I was actually compiling a text and as the marks gradually built up they developed relationships among themselves that could almost have been syntactical.

Once these four drawings had reached a satisfactory state I posted them to Georgia Boukla in the UK, so that she could continue work on them. A little while later, four drawings made by Jane Kennington, also in the UK, arrived and I laid them out so I could get to know them a little better.
Once I had become more familiar with them I began work, attempting to develop the image further without pushing it to a resolution...sometimes not so easy to do. These four drawings were then posted to Georgia so she could attempt to resolve them.

When the final set of four drawings arrived, it was my responsibility to guide the images to a resolved state. In fact, by this stage, the three of us had in front of us a set of four drawings that had been worked on by the other two collaborators. Once this stage had been completed all the resulting drawings would be sent to a common location to be exhibited.

It turned out that due to certain circumstances, I would be leaving Hong Kong and so I had to work hard in an effort to resolve the images before I left. I had to work quickly and make some quick decisions, which is something I do not like to do when I'm working on such drawings, especially as part of such a unique project. I much prefer to wait and allow the drawing itself to guide me to a conclusion.

I have tried to combine photographs of the three stages of each drawing so that the progress is easier to see. Some of the images are better than others as they were taken quickly for reference rather than for archival purposes. The final stage of the third set of drawings is left blank at the moment as I do not yet have access to the resulting images that are, hopefully, now on show in the exhibition in Greece. [This will be updated if / as soon as the final images have been obtained].

Once again, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work on this collaborative project. The results are unexpected and the work was challenging, yet so rewarding. An artist's practice can often be quite a solitary existence and so this project is a chance for me to break out of my usual methodologies and to take a step sideways to encounter a new experience. I have learnt so much from this project and I think I could not wish for more. I would like to thank and congratulate the organiser, Gabriela Boiangiu and my two collaborators, Georgia Boukla and Jane Kennington.

Exhibition Venue: Educational Research Centre

(photos courtesy of Erini and Georgia Boukla, Gabriela Boiangiu)

Combined Stages of the Drawings:

Round 1:

    Patrick                         +                    Georgia                   +                    Jane  

Round 2:

       Jane                      +                   Patrick                    +                Georgia

Jane 

+ 

Patrick

+

Georgia

 Jane 

+

Patrick
+
Georgia

       Jane                     +                    Patrick                   +                 Georgia

Round 3

Georgia                +                    Jane                    +                     Patrick 

International Drawing Dialogue Phase 2, second stage - 2018

To begin the second stage of this collaborative drawing project (see here), 4 drawings by UK artist Jane Kennington arrived in the post.

I unwrapped her drawings and left them out so I could get to know them and, hopefully, strike up a conversation with them.

After a while the drawings began to suggest a way forward and following that I started to construct a response. The drawings evolved as a conversation might, initial introductions, politeness at first, becoming more relaxed as the conversation developed and familiar topics were touched upon.

Jane's opening drawings were generous and left me at least half the page to work with, sometimes more and so the dialogue within the drawings remained polite and respectful.

The resulting drawings were sent on to Georgia Boukla in the UK. I am now awaiting the third stage of the project in which I will be the third artist to work on the set of drawings.

My responses are as follows, in the order I made them:

International Drawing Dialogue Phase 2 - 2017

Following the previous drawing dialogue project that culminated in an exhibition and conference in Craiova, Romania (See here), some of the participants favoured a second phase. Last time two artists were partnered and initiated drawings that were passed to the partner before completion. This time the idea is for three artists to be partnered together and the work is passed from A - B - C etc. and are considered resolved when all 3 artists have worked on them.

I used an approach that arose from a current project that features 'frottage' plus additional mark-making that sometimes resembles a type of unknown calligraphy. As the drawings are the result of physical interaction with the landscape, the images could be seen as a record of the interaction in the form of a personal, indecipherable written language

This time I am partnered with Georgia Boukla and Jane Kennington. The deadline for the completion of the first part is the end of December 2017 but I found an equilibrium within my drawings and will post them on to Georgia on Monday 27th November 2017. I expect to receive Jane's initiated drawings in the new year.

Eventually all the work will be brought together for an exhibition, location still to be confirmed. I will post news and images of the drawings as they evolve.