Charley Peters, Sketches for Pyschoparadoxa (2011), Ink on paper

Charley Peters, Sketches for Psychoparadoxa (2011), Ink on paper

Sketches: Psychoparadoxa

Charley Peters, Sketches for Psychoparadoxa Series (2011), Ink on paper

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Autosuggestion

Charley Peters  Autosuggestion (detail) (2011), Duct tape on wall

This is the latest work in the ongoing series of wall drawings in duct tape. It develops previous pieces where architectural features intervene with drawn lines by working across floor spaces, ceilings, and, as in this case, around a corner of a room. It is interesting for me to move the disrupted lines drawn on paper in works such as Interruptions (http://www.charleypetersprojects.com/2011/09/studio-views-work-in-progress.html) into real locations, using a physical material such as duct tape to draw with. When being used as a drawing medium the tape moves across both two and three dimensions to delineate lines and spaces. It has the resiliance to be manipulated across a room's different surfaces and visual planes to make a multi-dimensional drawing in space.

Charley Peters, Autosuggestion (2011)

Project News: Future of the City

Charley Peters, Future Cities (2011), London

The work I produced recently for Smart Urban Stage is now online on the Future of the City pages of the website. In the project, Professor Gordon Wagener, Head of Design, Mercedes-Benz, Stuttgart asked eight international artists and designers to respond to the question, 'In reference to urban mobility, how will design evolve in the upcoming two decades?'

The work I made translated my studio practice into a series of ephemeral drawn interventions in London. I am interested in the lines of movement within the city, and how, as cities continue to grow in the future, the paths of motion of the wandering flaneur intersect the transit of automated transport and vice versa. The works responded to the architectural and natural features of the locations, marking out physical lines and spaces in duct tape in a playful encounter with the urban landscape. Sometimes the placement of the tape collapsed foreground and background features once documented photographically as in the image on the left. The works were not planned and had to be executed quickly in response to the locations.

To accompany the works I wrote the following statement, which can be seen on the Future City site alongside the complete series of images,
'...To navigate through the urban environment we need to react to the materiality of its evolving geography, to learn to play with space and draw lines through a city that respond to our physical experiences. These ephemeral drawings in tape use locations in London as a canvas on which to plot linear journeys and spatial encounters. Lines divide, designate and dictate our urban mobility, but they are also a legacy of our passage through cities as autonomous individuals'

More responses to Gordon Wagener's question will be uploaded over the next few weeks.
The complete series can be seen at: http://www.smart-urban-stage.com/blog/future-of-the-city/how-will-design-evolve-4/

Left: Creating the work, London SW11   Right: Future Cities (2011)

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Autosuggestion

Charley Peters, Autosuggestion (2011), Duct tape on wall

Autosuggestion is the latest of my recent explorations of drawing with tape directly onto the studio wall. Although still being concerned with the repetition of parallel lines, Autosuggestion also explores geometric form and employs a wider colour palette than in previous tape drawings. This series will continue to develop in the studio over the successive weeks. More images of subsequent work will be posted on Carbon Particles when available.

Charley Peters, Autosuggestion (Detail) (2011), Duct tape on wall

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Psychoparadoxa

Charley Peters, Psychoparadoxa (Work in Progress) (2011), Electrical tape on wall

Psychoparadoxa are new works on the wall (above) and paper (below) that use the notion of perspective drawing as the starting point for geometric explorations of space. In these examples limited colour is used to both explain and confuse the separate planes of foreground and background.

Charley Peters, Psychoparadoxa (sketches) (2011), Pen on paper

Project News: Future of the City

Work in progress for the Smart Urban Stage Future of the City project

I have been invited to participate in an ongoing project dealing with the future of the city. Initiated by car manufacturers Smart, artists, designers, architects and technologists from different cities around the world are asked to question the urban status quo. Challenged to respond to a question, in this case posed by Gordon Wagener (Head of Design, Mercedes Benz), each project contributor must produce a series of 1-5 photographs as a means of communicating or exploring a notion of a 'future city'. I have been working on a response to Wagener's question, 'In reference to urban mobility (and Megacities) how will design evolve in the upcoming two decades?' My work, a series of drawn and documented interventions in locations around London can be seen online once published on the Future of the City website.

Previous contributions to the Future of the City project can be seen here: http://www.smart-urban-stage.com/

Further information about the project will be posted on Carbon Particles once the work is online.

Studio Views: Architectural Interruptions

Charley Peters, Untitled Wall Drawing (2011), Graphite on Wall

 Recent drawings in the studio has been developing the aesthetic concerns of the interrupted line. In a series of works on paper produced over the last few months parallel lines are systematically drawn but masked areas allow the lines to change direction and explore the resultant linear progressions. In Untitled Wall Drawing (2011), the architectural restraints of the corner of the studio replaces masking as the originator of the linear interruptions.

Left: Charley Peters, Praxis (Interrupted) (2011), Ink on Paper  /  Right: Charley Peters, Untitled Wall Drawing (Detail) (2011), Graphite on Wall

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Covariance Series

Charley Peters, Covariance (2011), Gaffer Tape, Canvas and Wall

Another drawing with tape is being developed on the studio wall. The black and grey tape lines, of varying weights and widths, progress across the white wall, colliding with canvas squares and altering their trajectory.

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Interrupted Vertical Lines

Charley Peters, Works in Progress (2011), Ink on Paper

Developments of a new series of drawings incorporating interrupted vertical lines, drawn sytematically parallel to each other. The ink lines are layered in an unpremeditated manner, causing colours to mix on the paper.

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Praxis Series / Grids

Charley Peters, from Praxis series (2011), Ink on Paper

Studio Views: Moiré Drawings

Charley Peters, Moiré Sketch (2011)

 See also:
http://www.charleypetersprojects.com/2011/08/sketches-rupture.html  and  http://www.charleypetersprojects.com/2011/07/sketches-rupture.html

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The word 'moiré' refers to visual interference patterns, which are created when two or more layers of simple dot, line, or grid structures overlap, producing an additional pattern on top of the original layers. Moiré patterns are often an undesired artefact of images produced by various digital imaging techniques, for example when scanning a halftone image, and is often an unwanted side-effect in printing processes.

The term originates from moire (or moiré in its French form), a type of textile characterised by a rippled or 'watered' appearance. In images, when two grids or series of parallel lines are overlaid at an angle, a similar effect is generated. The nonlinear interaction of the optical patterns of lines creates a visible pattern of roughly parallel dark and light bands, the moiré pattern, superimposed on the lines.


In a number of recent drawings from the series Rupture, I have generated moiré patterns through the layering of systematically produced lines. Generally speaking, instances of such visual disruption to images are generated unintentionally through the mechanical or digital processing of an image. As with all drawings rendered by hand, however, my drawings contain random deviations from a mechanically produced constant. Much of my recent work and research has similarly been characterised by such a dichotomy – the tension between the systematic and the uncontrollable, in both aesthetic and process terms, and references to the relationship between the mass-produced image and the unique object.

Charley Peters, drawings from sketchbook (2011)

TBC Artists' Collective: A Message To... Houston

Charley Peters, A Message To... Paul Neal 'Red' Adair (2011), Folded Paper on Wall

TBC's latest project, A Message To... Houston has now been completed and images of the installation of the works by myself, Laura Davidson and Beverley Bennett are now available at 12-pages.com.

My collaboration with Davidson was inspired by research into the firefighter 'Red' Adair. Davidson interpreted a set of instructions supplied by me relating to a series of drawings made from folded paper for the project (above), which are installed in my studio in London. On the 25th of August Davidson recreated the works in Houston, Texas, and scattered their subsequently burned remnants along the park in the middle of Heights Boulevard, which divides the lanes of traffic travelling across town (below). The work is the latest in TBC's ongoing exploration of drawing as performative, interventionist or documentary medium, moving the act of solitary mark making out of the studio and into a collaborative, interactive environment. For more information about the project click here.

Laura Davidson and Charley Peters, A Message to Paul Neal 'Red' Adair' (2011)

Exhibition News: Drawing Connections

Charley Peters, Sliver (2011), Ink on Paper

The drawing Sliver (above) can be seen in the forthcoming exhibition Drawing Connections at the Siena Art Institute, Italy, from 24th September 2011. After the exhibition closes Sliver will remain in the permanent collection of the Siena Art Institute library.

Studio Views: Developing the Somnolence Series

Charley Peters, Somnolence (2011), Graphite on Paper

Studio Views: Work in Progress, Praxis Series

Charley Peters, from Praxis series (2011), Ink on Paper

(Above) Recent drawings from the Praxis series of systematic repetitive line works, drawn on a smaller scale than other work in the series and exploring shifts in line direction, bleed between masked areas and visual movement created through line positioning. These finished drawings are developed from initial diagnostic works in my sketchbook, which can be seen in an earlier blog post.

Somnolence: Lines in Space

Charley Peters, from Somnolence series (2011), Graphite on Black Paper

The Somnolence series of drawings based on intersecting lines is continuing to be developed in the studio. The example above shows the recent exploration of graphite on black paper to create a somewhat ghostly, semi-lustrous image, with asymmetric masking of the left and right sides of the drawing. Quick drawings in sketchbooks (below) suggest depth and viewing position through the proximity and position of the lines on the page, and illustrate the removal of tight masking from the upper and lower limits of the drawings present in earlier drawings in the series.

Charley Peters, sketches for Somnolence (2011), Ink and Marker Pen on Paper

Grids and Non-Grids

Charley Peters, Untitled (2011), Ink on Paper

Recent work in the studio has been exploring grids and the repetitive application of lines on and across such rigid structures. One example of these gridded drawings can be seen above, in this case successive straight lines are drawn in ink onto white paper. These drawings are still in development, but have led to further sketches where the grid is removed altogether (see below).

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketches (2011), Ink on Paper

In these works the formal composition of the lines on the paper becomes important to suggest movement and harmony between the elements in the drawing - especially in the later exploration of materials where the lines are applied in a variety of media. The final examples shown here employ graphite, ink and paint in the same drawing, on both mid-tone grey papers (below) and semi-transparent paper (not shown).

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketches (2011), Graphite, Ink and Paint on Paper

Drawing is the New Painting

'Drawing is closest to the original kernel of an idea. Drawing is private. Drawing is the trace of a unique human subjectivity. Drawing returns us to narrative but without objectivity. Drawing always connects to writing. It links directly to literature, it is always a fiction. Drawing is irrational and rational, done on both sides of the brain. Drawing uses the newest digital technologies. It creates a virtual reality. Drawing is the foundation of all art departments, so important that it does not even need a concentration of its own. Drawing is very valuable, and must be shown only rarely, protected by glass. The more minimal, delicate, and ephemeral, the more poetic and evocative it is. The more obsessive, the more expressive it is. The more monumental, the more paradoxical and contemporary it is.

Drawing is the newest oldest medium. Drawing is impossible to define.'

from Kurczynski, K. Drawing is the New Painting. Published in Art Journal, April 2011

Read the entire essay here.

Sketches: Praxis

Charley Peters, Sketches for Praxis Series (2011), Ink on Paper

The above exploratory drawings from sketchbooks illustrate some recent developments in the Praxis series of systematic drawings, using masking and angled lines to interrupt the drawn surface.

Sketches: Opposing Lines

Charley Peters, Sketches (2011), Ink on Paper

Sketches: Somnolence

Charley Peters, Sketches for Somnolence (2011), Pencil Crayon on Paper

Exhibition News: Slice

TBC Artists' Collective, Still from Khoros (2011)

TBC have a newly commissioned piece of work in Slice, opening at Rich Mix, London E1 6LA on 1 September 2011. Appropriating the various and undulating spaces of Catherine Wheel Alley, E1, as a live studio, TBC applied the ideas of dance theorist Rudolf von Laban and the novelist Italo Calvino to a performative ‘drawing’, exploring and mapping the environment through a combination of lines and motion. White boiler suits homogenised the performers with the space and its architectural features, drawing attention to the symbolic red elastic lines and shapes generated as they moved together topologically. The resultant ‘drawing in space’, Khoros, plots the relationship between the artists’ physical encounters of the location and their shared experience of collaborative movement.

Slice is open 1-22 September at Rich Mix, London, and the National College of Arts, Lahore.
http://www.richmix.org.uk

More information about the Slice project and TBC's film, Khoros, can be seen on the Slice website:
www.london-lahore.com

Sketches: Rupture

Charley Peters, Sketches for Rupture (2011), Ink on Paper

The images above illustrate the continuing development of the Rupture series of drawings, which explore the relationship between intersecting lines through monochrome and colour studies. These drawings display a closer positioning of lines than in previous Rupture sketches, each drawn systematically below the previous line in both horizontal and diagonal directions in a manner similar to an inkjet printer generating an image. The pressure and proximity of the lines is not pre-determined, but rather instinctively or randomnly drawn by hand, which suggests movement and depth in the picture plane.

Sketch for Rupture (2011), Ink on Paper (detail)

A Message To... Houston

As part of TBC Artists' Collective, I will be taking part in the A Message To... Houston project during August. My piece of work is inspired by the legendary firefighter 'Red' Adair, who, during his career extinguished and capped oil well blowouts, both on land and offshore. The project will involve a collaboration between myself and TBC's Laura Davidson, based on Laura's interpretation of a set of instructions I supplied her with relating to a series of my drawings made for the project. The instructions and my drawings - made from folded paper, reminiscent of flame forms - are below. The second part of the project will be documented on the TBC Online Project Space, 12-Pages, at the end of August.

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A Message to... Paul Neal 'Red' Adair

I have made six drawings out of folded paper.

The drawings are now on the wall of my studio in London.

On sheets of white paper I have recorded each fold as a line, thereby producing six new line drawings.

I have given these line drawings to you and they are to be taken to Houston, Texas.

In Houston the lines should be turned into folds and the original drawings recreated.

The six recreated drawings should be burned and their ashes scattered in Houston Heights, the area where Red Adair spent his childhood, to commemorate his career extinguishing hazardous oil well fires until his retirement at the age of 77.

Charley Peters, A Message to Red Adair (2011), Folded paper on wall

Project News: A Message To... Houston

During August TBC Artists' Collective will be taking part in a project in Houston, Texas. A Message To... Houston will involve TBC members - Beverley Bennett, Charley Peters, Laura Davidson, Paul Mendez and intern James Tuitt - researching notable residents of Houston and creating a new piece of interventionist work inspired by their findings. The final works will be installed in locations around the city. The works and their placement in sites in Houston will be recorded and can be seen on the TBC Online Project Space at the end of August.

Paroxysm

Charley Peters, Paroxysm (detail) (2011), Ink on Paper

Work continues on the Paroxysm series, developing the initial sketches into larger pieces of work (70cm x 100 cm) that explore repetitively drawn lines of different weights and trajectories.

Charley Peters, from the Paroxysm series (2011), Ink on Paper

Sketches: Rupture

Charley Peters, Sketch for Rupture series, Ink on Paper (2011)

Early sketches for a new series of works provisionally titled Rupture, where intersecting coloured lines collide within a drawing.

Charley Peters, Sketches for Rupture series, Ink on Paper (2011)

Sketches: Slice Visual Essay

Charley Peters, Sketches for Slice (2011), Ink on Paper

Over the next two weeks I am continuing to work on a series of drawings that will be part of a visual essay in the publication that accompanies the Slice project that TBC Artists' Collective have been involved in. The latest sketches towards developing work for the publication are a response to the shifting virtual lines suggested by the red elastic stretched between TBC members during their 'drawing in space' in Catherine Wheel Alley.

The Slice website documenting all works created for the project by artists in London and Lahore will be live on Friday, after a launch event at the Ideas Store, Whitechapel on Thursday evening.

Sketches: Opposing Lines

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketch (2011), Ink on Paper

Some early developmental sketches exploring compositions of opposing lines. The lines are set on a deconstructed grid, where the proximity of the lines suggests movement, depth and perspective within the picture plane.

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketches (2011), Ink on Paper

Project News: 'Slice' Visual Essay, a collaboration with Beverley Bennett

Charley Peters, Sketches for Slice (2011), Pencil Crayon on Paper

I am currently collaborating with artist Beverley Bennett to produce a visual essay as part of the publication associated with the international Slice project, featuring artists from London and Lahore. During a studio session this week we generated a series of drawings in response to the performative 'drawing in space' produced by TBC Artists' Collective in Catherine Wheel Alley, London. The works produced this week in the studio will be developed over the forthcoming weeks and published in September to coincide with the opening of the Slice exhibition at Rich Mix, London.

Project News: Altered States on TBC Online Project Space

Charley Peters, DS329-1/DS9-5 (2011), Hazard Tape on Canvas

“A revolutionary action within culture cannot have as its aim to be the expression or analysis of life; it must aim at life’s expansion. Misery must be pushed back everywhere.”
Guy Debord

Available on TBC Artists' Collective's online project space is Issue 8 of 12-Pages, a publication of contemporary drawing. July's issue, Altered States, edited by TBC member Laura Davidson, asked contributors to consider art as a catalyst for change. It was important that these ideas were considered in the widest possible sense, to bring a sense of plurality to a changed state. As we know too well, the drive for a reformed state in Europe post WW1 lead to in Germany, Italy and Spain the spectre of Fascism and in the East of Europe the steel face of Communism. Such extremes of belief today seem less significant in the age of Web 2.0, where multiple states of exchange between individuals can seemingly co-exist. As 12-pages’ editorial remit is to create a discourse around contemporary drawing practice and its definition, the featured outcomes additionally challenge the ‘drawing’ in some way.

For Altered States, I submitted the work DS329-1/DS9-5, a drawing made by stretching hazard warning tape over a canvas. The title refers to the pantone references of the yellow and black of the tape, colours synonymous with danger, emergency or violent criminal activity. Altered States editor Laura Davidson wrote about the work, 'Removed from its original signifying concept the tape has been used to make marks, instead of warning of imminent danger. This removal of signifier through drawing practice gives an engaged process based response.'

Altered States can be seen at: http://www.12-pages.com/2011/07/altered-states.html

Sketches: Praxis

Charley Peters, Praxis (2011), Ink on Paper

Above are recent studio developments of the ongoing Praxis series of systematic drawings, in which successive ink lines are interrupted by masking off areas of the picture plane. The subtle overlapping of the drawn areas produces 'bleeding' between the series of lines and visual movement within the works.

New online profile at The Drawing Center, New York

I have a new portfolio and profile on The Drawing Center, New York as part of their juried Viewing Program artist registry. Click here to see more...

Project News: Altered States (Coming Soon)

Coming soon on TBC Artists' Collective's online project space is Altered States, a publication featuring newly commissioned work from a range of international artists. Altered States will be edited by TBC member Laura Davidson and will be available on 12-pages.com later this month.