03.11.23 | What is drawing research? Symposium
Two conferences from this event impacted me.
The first one was by Katrin Ströbel, "What if drawing is a delicately braided rope of anger, love and desire that binds us to the world?". The title was powerful. Ströbel presented drawing as an "antenna", showing its various possibilities. "The space of drawing as a space for freedom." "Drawing as an ally for the subject of intimacy, as a space for vulnerability and healing". To be reminded that drawing itself is political (as it was in the margins of art history for a long period) and that is a crisis-resistance, democratic and accessible medium for a lot of people, was something that reminded me of the affection I have for it.
When drawing was presented as a tool for intimacy (since it's physically close to us and, consequently, shares this intimacy with us), I could make a direct connection to my recent interests of trying to portray intimacy, and my own relations with materiality. I even reflected about the embroidery, realizing even more connections between both: intimacy, the position in the margins of art history, the aspect of being crisis-resistant, etc.
The second conference was by Leonard Shapiro, in which he explained a method for anatomy drawing by observation and touch. It motivated me to implement the sense of touch in my practice even more. Since I have an interest in exploring the body's possible sensibilities, I realized that it'd be interesting to utilize other senses apart from vision in my work, to explore my whole body as a tool. "Touch is gesture, drawing is gesture", Shapiro reminded us. I felt, once again, that subject and practice are frequently intertwined for me.