• A Peculiar Companionship •
A theoretical & practical investigation on the imagination of the unconscious mind through the medium of drawing.
A Peculiar Companionship is intended to be an in-depth investigation following the research paper entitled “Unfolding The Mysteries Of Drawing” presented for the Research Methods and Methodologies in Practice course during my postgraduate studies at the Glasgow School of Art in 2019-2020.
The process that I have recently been using and made more accustomed to could be described as “carving through shading”.
The application of different tones of shading allowed the rapid emergence of random marks that could be potentially shaped into more representational forms and figures.
These markings facilitate the use of the imagination as it becomes the beginning of a thread that is waiting to be pulled out and expanded. The different values of the shadings when combined together, slowly begin a process of transformation, the blank and abstract forms begin to be more concrete and representational.
The visual imagery that surfaces on the paper is an outcome of unintentional gestural mark makings followed by more consciously driven markings.
The spontaneous marks provide a glossary of hidden and unexpected forms that could not have been possible if they were to be made intentionally.
This process is based on observation and reflection upon the traces in order to search for the next element and so on.
The pencil allows me to have a first look at what could result following each mark on the paper, the decision to proceed with detailing or continuing the process of shading further parts is mine to make.
Some of the minuscule forms that result are heavily detailed and embrace the possibility of creating
Every layer of shading added reveals something that is potentially suggestive to become a form or a figure.
My creative process encompasses three main elements: the eyes, the mind and the pencil, under certain circumstances, these 3 unite and share their distinctive qualities between one another, they join forces and begin to unfold unanticipated results.
This process is not regular and does not always bring good results.
2019 - Present Work in progress.
Through my practical research, I aim to:
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Investigate the visual outcome of drawing under a state similar to that of paranoia.
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Observe possible visual hallucinations during moments of intense focus.
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Observe and experience the practical transformation of the act of drawing into a visual language bonded by marks and guided by the movement of the hand
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Practice drawing as an experiential and a visual methodology that enables the practitioner to acquire cognitive learning and knowledge through practice. ( Patricia Cain on Drawing )
Surrealism is becoming the backbone of my practical research, it resonated with my inquiry in the pursuit of the unknown and inspired me to experiment with methods that were practiced by some of the leading figures in this artistic movement.
Andre Masson’s Automatic Drawings, Max Ernst’s Frottage and Salvador Dali’s Paranoiac Critical method were a few among many surrealist methods that fascinated me and presented themselves as catalysts to communicate with the unconscious through art making.
Experimenting with automatic drawings and single/multiple gestural drawings in order to investigate an alternative artistic process to art making.
This method was useful as both a starting point and intermediate link for the emergence of new ideas that were partly unconscious through the spontaneous mark making of the experimental drawings and then putting it into context through the process of transforming it into a representational drawing as a final outcome.
The spontaneity of the process and the flexibility and freedom of the approach allowed me to break out from my usual process and experience a different one then reflect on both and combine them together in order to create a dialogue between the two.
It made me become aware of the boundaries that i set in my own process.