The Hyperdrawing Brief

Hyperdrawing is the current phase of a research project that aims to: 

Investigate the ambiguity that emerges from the artificial boundaries employed to subdivide contemporary fine art drawing practice.

Within this Hyperdrawing’s specific aim is to:

To investigate the opportunities for the prefix ‘supra-’, meaning ‘above, over’ or ‘beyond the limits of, outside of’, within a hypothesised hierarchical representation of drawing within contemporary fine art practice.

Our tutor Jane set us a brief titled ‘Hyperdrawing’ for the first semester. We are to explore and push the boundaries of what drawing is, how far can we take it? The aim is to produce a piece of work for an upcoming exhibition at The Waiting Room space in Colchester, where all three years from the degree will be exhibiting in the working and original space. 

Last year I experimented with the idea of drawing as photography. It was a personal approach as I am not one to sketch something out first, to plan things I take photographs. This is an idea that I pulled on throughout that module, working with projection and photography to capture figures and lines through light and shadow. 

I decided that I really wanted to continue on with this as I had been experimenting with film photography towards the end of last year and this is something I am absolutely in love with and wish to learn more about. For me it wasn’t a question of whether I could use photography as drawing for this brief, I decided to work with the idea, not the medium. 

Considering the Emma Dexter text I wish to explore the way we symbolically draw in life. I spoke before of that connection to the Human Presence, how we show that we exist in a space. I noted my intention of exploring the way my close family and friends make marks on the spaces that they live in, personal things, that hold memory and meaning. I plan to take photos of those things, attempting to capture their ‘marks’ as such, not on themselves, but the space. I will not be taking images of the people, but the way the essence of those people are contained in a room, a chair, a surface, a wall.