John Fonda Gallery, The Theatre Project

Baltimore, Md

]]> http://leahcooper.com/2009/06/29/iterating-the-ordinary-a-site-responsive-drawing/feed/ 0 Leahdc http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/27/objects/ http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/27/objects/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 22:48:59 +0000 Leah Cooper http://leahcooper.com/?p=198 ]]>
]]> http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/27/objects/feed/ 0 Leahdc http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/08/microbud-installation_nov-2008/ http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/08/microbud-installation_nov-2008/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 20:14:10 +0000 Leah Cooper http://leahcooper.com/?p=176 ]]>
]]> http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/08/microbud-installation_nov-2008/feed/ 0 Leahdc http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/05/drawing-as-a-strategy/ http://leahcooper.com/2009/05/05/drawing-as-a-strategy/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 20:24:32 +0000 Leah Cooper http://leahcooper.com/?p=102 ]]> Within the context of art, a drawing is primarily understood to be a 2-dimensional representation of the 3-dimensional. In his essay ‘Anyone Can Learn to Draw’ artist Mel Bochner divides drawing into three categories.

a. Finished drawing; A rendering of object or place. Drawing, or rather, a drawing is the end product. ‘Drawing is a noun. ’(Bochner, 61)

b. Working drawing; Drawing is thinking on paper, a sketch of an idea. Drawing is a means to an end. ‘Drawing is a verb.’(Bochner, 61)

c. Diagrammatic drawing; Drawing is standardized, drawing describes, and delivers accurate information. 2-dimension can then be executed in 3-dimensions. ’Drawing is a language. ’(Bochner, 61)

Yet even with Bochner’s divisions the notion of drawing is hardly expanded. Drawing is not the ‘thing’ it is of the ‘thing’. It continues to be a 2-dimensional illustration of object and/or place; a depiction always once removed from the experience of the object or place it describes. If drawing is separated from its assumed role of descriptor, illustration would no longer be synonymous with drawing. Rather, illustration would become just one tactic by which drawing could be used to make ideas visible.

Operating under the notion that visual art is a physical demonstration of idea; drawing in this context becomes means toward that end. Drawing as noun, drawing as verb, drawing as language are all employed towards a specific goal of representing meaning through concrete forms. Drawing is a strategy. A strategy whose tactics could include illustration, notation, and nomination and a strategy whose materials would go beyond the standard mark makers and paper.

This definition of drawing as strategy is not only pertinent to work that has yet to be made, but can also be a framing device for previous works. For example,in Bochner’s ‘Measurements’ it is not only the lines and numbers marked on the walls, but also the wall, door frame, floor, the space in totality that becomes the materials of the drawing. The drawing is not an illustration of the space, but rather it is of the space and the space simultaneously. Drawing and drawn are both present; drawing is no longer once removed from what is drawn.