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)