In mark making, both the physical mark and the performance of leaving a mark contributes greatly to the final product.
Physical Mark Inspirations
1。Ed Moses Drawings from 1960 and 70ties
Early 1960 — First exhibition, developing stage. USP: Element of surprise–
Late 1960 — Joined Arts Faculty–
Early 1970 — Experimenting with process and material, using resin & latex. Thematic developments: Increasing the layers and chaos of his works–
**The idea of process remains his focus as opposed to the finished product.**
1st impression:
Materials- Resin work, charcoal on canvas
Technique-Crisscrosses varying in weight and pattern
**Expert use of framing, negative space**
The black artwork is rotated and cropped. Why cropped?
The cropping allows for a unique framing which allows the viewer’s eyes to vacillate around the borders. The viewer’s eye can travel, looking not at one spot. Thus the artwork captures our attention and leaves an interesting impression
**The extra detail adorning the negative space is comfortable and adequate, yet not messy**
The second looks very messy and unkempt. The usage of dirty colours (ranging from dirty white to brown to grey and blacks) creates a foreboding atmosphere where the eye wanders around uneasily, unaware where to focus.
The human eye is attracted to light, however, the lack of chiaroscuro (The lighting is top down and almost universally evenly lit) confuses us as we do not know where to focus. We would choose to look at the centre brown periphery first from instinct,
Our vision and attention is torn, branching out from the centre in all directions as the jarring colours, lights and darks fight for attention all at once.
Well knit cross sections which seem to present depth in its intricacy. Great handling of weights and shading creates the chiaroscuro, and its light areas seem to be glowing internally, presenting some sort of etherial quality from its ghostly light.
The squared border creates a flat image for the painting, not giving it a false illusion of a curved surface. The etches in the border gives the sense that the painting is stretched flat and embedded in its base canvas.
Our eye travels down, enjoying the gradient transiting from light to dark, and the transition from thin to thick strokes enhances the effect.
2。Sol LeWitt “Scribbles”
2005– Started the series of ‘scribbled’ murals
It was not the work of an individual, rather by other artists and his apprentices. Lewitt gave them specific instructions to fill in the wall by scribbling with graphite.
1968 – 2007– The wall drawings, executed on-site, generally exist for the duration of an exhibition; they are then destroyed, giving the work in its physical form an ephemeral quality
In his instructions, he noted that the intensity of scribbling should be varied, creating
**a continuum of tone that implies three dimensions”, not in order to make the drawing “as much as possible two-dimensional” but, on the contrary, to detach it from the wall in the most illusionistic way through bundles of thick and chiaroscuro’s signs.**
1st impression:
Are you kidding me? The expert detailing, sheer difference in line weights and spacing creates an illusion of a 3 dimensional space existing within and at the same time outside the confines of our flat 2d white walls. The curvilinear and playful lines spin and weave, adding to the almost ephemeral, transient quality.
What looks like the airiness of the universe’s specks are revealed to be hair-like concentric designs of acute precision. The light strokes and alternation between density/sparsity create an airy breathiness, which slowly clumps together. The artwork seems to be in a state of constant flux, breathing and moving by its own pace.
The concentrated areas of scribbles are down with strokes precise enough to make out individual lines, and thin enough to create an overall clean outlook. The effect is not garish and suffocating, only softly smothering.
“Each person draws a line differently and each person understands words differently”- Sol Lewitt. Each piece in the mural series is different, as it is made up of multiple contributions by multiple hands.
The series blends well together with its soft, almost viscous fluidity, creating an overall relaxing ambience, which seems to be quietly pulsating, having a heartbeat of its own. Through mesmerising ourselves in the artwork, e seem almost more in tune with the universe as the artwork seems to encompass the essence of our world and the unique human experiences. Quiet like an exhale, it seems to be gently embracing the undeniable unchanging realities of our world, making us at ease in our current states.
Physical Mark Inspirations
3。Cai Guo Qiang
Growing up in the time of warfare between the Taiwanese Guomintang and Mao’s Communist China, artillery sounds and explosions were a concrete, visceral part of his childhood.
His father was an artist too, deeply rooted in tradition, his desire for control preventing him from steering away into the unknown. Cai Guo Qiang is more experimental, discovering the usage of gunpowder to art infused with chance. Every stroke or colour may be pre-planned, but the path of explosives is still tempestuous and unforeseen, leaving a large gap for improvisation and fate.
**Usage of natural mineral gunpowder- a conversation, a dance with nature.
Creation is like dancing, like flirting**
1st impression:
The performance, the process is art in itself. The process of creation shows the wavering instabilty of the medium. Like a dance, both parties try to establish boundaries but also allow room for experimenting. Improvisational mistakes create a whole new masterpiece which would be otherwise stifled under overbearing need for control
Directing a team (to do saikang) Cai Guo Qiang has a hands-on approach to his craft, directing and crafting the explosives’ path.
His pieces exhibit the unique quality of detailing in abstraction, blending two opposing elements harmoniously through the careful, light touches in post processing.
The above is my favourite example of his gunpowder artwork, because the strokes blend together via their softness, as if melting into one airy and transcendent frame. The movement of animals are blurred yet present, creating a sense of movement and ephemerality, as if the marks are “after-(burn)images”, or footprints showcasing the animals which have crossed.
The uneven circular structure creates an artistic flow and further harmonises the piece