INSCRIPTION: Drawing – Making – Thinking Curated by Amanda Game and Anita Taylor
Part of the Jerwood Visual Arts Encounters series
13 January – 21 February 2010 Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London, SE1 0LN
An exhibition of work by three contemporary artists who each use mark making as a way of recording, developing and communicating ideas.
Curated by Amanda Game (Freelance curator and Consulting Lead Director of IC:Innovative Craft) and Anita Taylor (artist, Professor and Director of the Jerwood Drawing Prize), INSCRIPTION: drawing, making, thinking is the fourth in the Jerwood Visual Arts Encounters Series. The exhibition explores the different approaches to inscription through three contemporary artists, David Connearn, Philip Eglin and Charlotte Hodes.1
“It is often the act of drawing itself, the deep engagement in the act of unconscious thinking through making, that gives rise to an image or idea…… the hand feels the invisible and formless stimulus, pulls it into the world of space and matter and gives it form”
Juhani Pallasmaa, The Thinking Hand
Inscription, in this context, is the act of committing ideas through mark making to record meaning. It involves different physical processes of scratching or pressing into a surface. For David Connearn, Philip Eglin and Charlotte Hodes, mark making and inscription is intrinsic to the realisation of their ideas, although their artistic intentions may and do differ.
INSCRIPTION: drawing, making, thinking enables the curators and artists to consider the connections between drawing and making, opening up a rich stream of investigation for a broad range of artists, makers, curators and visitors. The exhibition includes drawings, ceramics, moving image and evidence of the artists' working process.
“The work of these artists offers an articulation of broad and deep knowledge, through visual means, and in particular through inscribed line, which is inseparable from a profound engagement with the physical means of production; whether in David’s drawings; Charlotte’s layered collages or Philip’s ceramic buckets. The question being asked by each artist of his or her practice may differ; their interests do differ, but each shares an almost meditative engagement with line as a form of thinking and exploring knowledge through making.”
Amanda Game and Anita Taylor, Curators – INSCRIPTION; drawing, making, thinking.
A series of Monday evening events at Jerwood Space will run alongside the exhibition. Guest speakers will include academics, artists and curators. The events will explore the exhibiting artists’ different approaches to INSCRIPTION, widening the Encounters conversation by engaging both practitioners and audience in open debate about drawing, making and thinking.
Events are free but must be booked in advance. For further information and to book, please contact Parker Harris, or check the Jerwood Visual Arts website.
1 David Connearn, Philip Eglin and Charlotte Hodes all have previous connections to the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. David Connearn won First Prize at the Cheltenham Open Drawing Competition in 2000 (now Jerwood Drawing Prize); Phillip Eglin was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts, Ceramics in 1996 (now Jerwood Contemporary Makers); and Charlotte Hodes won the Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2006.
