CAEL1001 Chap.2 Performative and Gestural Drawing
Performative and Gestural Drawing
Week 2 shifts from observation to action: rather than depicting something, you investigate how movement, collaboration, time and site generate marks, and how those marks record the that someone or something was there, or has gone. The studio runs as a loop rather than a task.
You mask the sheet, take a rubbing of whatever it is lying on, perform an action against it for at least two minutes while a partner photographs, trace what the action actually left, then work back in with layers of line, repetition and erasure.
The chapter covers why the surface must be at least A1, why the masking tape is the drawing's own control strip, and how the breath-and-line exercise works as a controlled experiment with one variable changed.
What this chapter covers
- 01
From observation to action, and what changes about the sheet
- 02
The body as the instrument: lungs, torso, arm, hand and feet
- 03
Why nothing smaller than an A1 sheet is accepted
- 04
Documentation as material rather than as a record of material
- 05
The six-stage studio loop, and why the surface is never blank
- 06
Masking tape as a control strip for a drawing that changes
- 07
Frottage: taking the site before taking a decision
- 08
Performing for a real duration, and swapping roles to document
- 09
A mark as an event in time and space
- 10
A drawing that exists as a set of instructions for other people
- 11
The breath-and-line pair, read as a controlled experiment
Reading a two-line breath experiment
- 1Describe both lines in checkable terms: how far each travelled, at what pressure, and how each one ended.
- 1Name the physical variable rather than the symptom. Speech spends an exhalation in bursts, so the second line records the shape of a sentence rather than the shape of a breath.
- 1Locate the most informative difference, which is the ending: the first line stops when the air stops and the second stops when the talking stops, and those are not the same moment.
- 1Reframe the pair. Two recordings of different events beats a good attempt and a worse one, and the reframing is the evaluation the criterion asks for.
Key terms
- Performative drawing
- Drawing in which an action is the generating cause of the marks, so the sheet is the residue of something that happened rather than a depiction of it.
- Frottage
- A rubbing taken through paper laid over a surface, recording the cracks, joins and grain beneath it. It gives the sheet a record of a place before any decision is made.
- Gesture
- Marks that register a movement, a burst of energy or an action instead of describing detail. It is the governing quality of this week.
- Ephemeral mark
- A trace left by an action rather than by drawing, such as a smear from a sleeve or a pressure change from overbalancing. The week asks you to find these and give them presence.
- Site-responsive
- Made in relation to a particular place, so that moving the work to another surface would have produced a different drawing.
- Documentation
- The photographs of a work in progress. In this week they are part of the work, because a collaborative sheet holds its own history invisibly.
Performative and Gestural Drawing FAQ
Why does the paper have to be so large?
Because a drawing you can reach across without moving keeps the body out of it. At A1 or larger you have to step, lean or crouch to finish a mark, which makes your position part of the drawing. The unit allows two A2 sheets taped together or butcher's paper if you do not have a single sheet.
What if my partner's action leaves no marks at all?
That is a finding rather than a failure, and it is worth writing down. It usually means the body was beside the sheet rather than in contact with it, so the exercise only records movement when there is contact. Repeating it with the paper on the floor normally solves it.
Do I have to use fixative?
No. The unit states that workable spray fixative is optional and that you do not need to fix the drawing. If you choose to use it, it must be applied outdoors and never in the classroom or corridor, and the safety page adds that spray adhesive requires the designated booth or an approved outdoor area.
How is a score different from a set of instructions for a picture?
A score fixes the procedure and leaves the outcome open: who acts, in what order, and what ends it. Instructions for a picture fix the result. The participatory work shown this week distributes authorship, leaves the duration unknown and makes the ending a decision rather than a finish.
Assessment move
Bring the largest sheet you can and a phone with space on it, because the documentation is assessable material and you will take more photographs than you expect. Put the tape down first and leave it there; lifting it at the end is the cheapest way to show change. Choose a repeated everyday action rather than an invented performance, since you can do it without watching yourself.
Afterwards, write the breath-line comparison properly: two lines, one variable changed, and a sentence about what the difference proves. That sentence shape is the one the marking criteria reward all semester.
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