Sometimes doing nothing leads to something

Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals being as a whole[1]

My work originates in what Siegfried Kracauer referred to as seemingly purposeless and empty moments which infiltrate everyday life such as that of the pedestrian, the commuter or the person waiting in the queue (1960, 30-33). In his final and unfinished book, he referred to the terra incognita where objectives and modes of being which still lack a name and hence overlooked or misjudged, can be rehabilitated (1995b, 192).

The drawings in this show are in three main categories in terms of media: some are straightforward works on paper; the second category drawings are made by inlaying gesso into mdf; the third are made with embroidered lines on calico fabric and hung on wooden frames. All the works are iterations of walks and ‘sweeps’ from the past three years and focus on drawing as action, drawing as a spatial practice, using walking and cleaning as a method of documenting my walks or ‘drifts’. Quite literally taking a line for a walk. The drawings map my wandering through various ‘ambiences’ and my meanderings along by-ways, cracks in the pavement, gutters and back-alleys.

The drawings forward the notion that doing nothing can lead to something interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Heidegger, ‘What is Metaphysics’ 99