‘Drawing Topologies’ – Proposal for Municipal Acquistions Drawings

29/06/07 – 16/09/07

Stedelijk Museum
Amsterdam

The drawing topologies exhibition is both an investigation into the different areas of drawing and a means to purchase work for the Stedelijk’s permanent collection. There are two reasons why I found this exhibition pertinent; a) the division of drawing into five distinct topologies and how each practice fitted to their allocated area b), to see what contemporary Netherlands based artists are doing with and within drawing.

It was quite clear that the selectors had got beyond the conventional sense of drawing as being something on paper. The Stedelijk had dedicated a large amount of space to this show and it was not an adjunct to other seemingly more important exhibitions. The works were given space to breathe and were not competing with their labels, as is often the case. This exhibition enabled you to get an idea of the artists practice in particular because it was clearly artists rather than works that were chosen. The five topologies gave the exhibition a framing to the reading of the work and allowing a more critical reflection of the current movements within drawing.

The five topologies they chose were; laboratory exploration, representational, as drawn (meaning to draw out of yourself), narrative, and drawing as the capturing of time.

Drawing as laboratory epitomised the idea of drawing as a working out, a visualization of ideas. Explorations that now have the same status as the final outcomes that the drawings make happen. There is the temptation to look at these works without considering their position within the artists practice. What status does the artist attribute to these works? Within this section there was a fascinating but straight real time video recording of insects swarming around bright lights. [Unfortunately I can’t and couldn’t work out which artist did this piece] The lights were illuminating a concert in contrast to the delicate frenzy of the insects there was sounds of a host on a tanoy and noises from a large crowd, just out of the frame of the camera, which never moved from the insects. This wasn’t drawing as laboratory, but drawing that documented; it was a record. ‘Drawing as time capsule’ fits drawing used to document, but other works such as Marc Nagtzaam’s meticulously copied computer print outs fitted not as drawing to document, but drawing to contain and expand time. Work where the labour of making is condensed within the reading of the image. I found most of the work within Drawings as representation was much more suited to the category of narrative, especially Ina van Zyl’s dark sexual charcoal drawings, images which form part of a narrative or originate in van Zyl’s comics and Maura Biava’s possible life outcomes for an arty female. The Stedeijkt used ‘representation’ more in terms of identity construction or image making. Marijn van Kreij work which was in the ‘Drawing as Drawn’ section seemed to be dealing with issues of representation, though I found his work fascinating partly because I found it difficult to truly get inside and understand. Drawing as Drawn was the section where I imagined there to be doodles and unexplainable images and thoughts expressed or vented through drawing. Perhaps Charlotte Schieffert’s females would be better suited in this section.

The five toponyms; laboratory, representation, drawn, narrative, and time capsule are a helpful start to break down differing approaches to drawing. Drawing in relation to space, the creation of it and the exploration of it seemed to there but not acknowledged. Justin Bennett’s drawing of a large space within a building with an accompanying audio of the sound of the drawing being made, but the size of the space was drawn twice with the line and the sound of the line through the echo of the drawn line within the space.

Another area that is currently relevant that is of ‘ground’ where artists are through drawing, transforming the nature of the ground, in the case of Amalia Pica’s ‘Island’ quite literally. She drew a tropical island in the snow. The snow became the white page and at once the tropical island and the sea. I am interested in seeing an exhibition exploring how drawing is used to change, drawing of action and critique. To critically investigate the relationship between the act of drawing and what it does to the ground.

Drawing Topologies is a fantastic show case of contemporary drawing.


Exhibiting artists; Voebe de Gruyter, Nathalie Bruys, Justin Bennett, Joseph Semah, Frank Koolen, Job Koelewijn, Ni Haifeng, Amalica Pica, , Ina van Zyl, Charlotte Schleiffert, Iris van Dongen, Maura Biava, Lily van der Stokker, Rosemin Hendriks, Marc Nagtzaam, Marijn van Kreij, Sema Bekirovic, Ronald Cornelissen, David Haines, Aji V.N., Daniel Roth, Aam Solleveld, Etta Safve, Erik Odijk, Eylem Aladogan, Marcel van Eeden, Marco Pando, Ivan Grubanov, Daragh Reeves.