Project News: A Message to... Marfa

Marfa, Texas, located at 30°18′43″N 104°1′29″W

TBC members Laura Davidson, Charley Peters and Beverley Bennett are currently working together on a collaborative project, A Message To... Marfa. Marfa is a town in the desert of West Texas, founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop. Marfa Army Airfield was located east of the town during World War II and trained several thousand pilots before closing in 1945, the abandoned site still being visible 16km east of the town. In 1956 the film Giant was filmed in Marfa, famously the last film featuring James Dean, who died before filming was completed. The city is now best known for housing Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation, occupying more than 10 buildings and permanently exhibiting work by artists including Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Richard Long and Roni Horn. 

A Message To... Marfa involves Peters and Bennett, in London, providing Davidson with a list of instructions for actions that she must undertake in Marfa. These actions will generate material that Davidson will send back to Peters and Bennett, which they will curate and interpret to generate a remote 'drawing' of Marfa. The project will be realised over the next two months, and published online shortly afterwards.

Sketch: Paint on Paper

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketch (2012), Acrylic on Paper

Sketch: Wood and Tape

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketch (2012), Wood, Electrical Tape and Wall

Sketch: Paper and Tape Collage

Charley Peters, Untitled Sketch (2012) Paper, Electrical Tape and Acetate

Sketches: Wall and Floor Drawings

Charley Peters, Untitled Drawing (2012), Duct Tape and Card

Charley Peters, Untitled Drawings (2012), Duct Tape and Card

These images document the development of a series of studio drawings using duct tape and card. I was interested in translating the straight lines and geometric forms of my recent drawings on paper into a more physical encounter in space using the studio wall and floor as a surface on which to 'draw'. Limited colour intervenes with the material forms, which were created by folding and placing the individual pieces of card to create particular, deliberate lines. The drawings above evolved through a series of fluid and playful engagements with the materials within a controlled space, developing from the initial monochromatic structures shown below.

Charley Peters, Untitled Drawings (2012), Duct Tape and Card

Drawing with Light

Charley Peters, Untitled Light Drawing (2012), Cut Paper and Light

The above image documents one of a series of studio explorations using light and cut paper to generate drawings onto a wall. Repetitive straight parallel lines were cut into black card, which was then manipulated into different forms and lit from behind. The shape of the card (in this case bent into a cylinder), the width and depth of the cut lines, and the proximity of the light to the cuts generated different intensities and trajectories of light drawings onto a wall, something that will continue to be developed in the studio.

Sketch

Charley Peters, Sketch (2012), Acrylic on Paper

An early developmental sketch, translating the geometric forms of my previous digital drawings into works in acrylic paint on paper. Working at a small scale, the intensity of detail from the earlier drawings had to be restrained, but this piece was a useful exercise in the exploration of possible future developments of the work and the testing of different materials.