Abstract
Constructed Drawings is a series of three framed 50x50cm colour pencil on paper drawings. The format for each drawing is a square with a geometrical structure, composed of a basic grid designed to focus attention on the centre of each composition. This pictorial device activates the picture plane in such a way that each drawing’s centre appears to recede, protrude, fold or undulate.
The drawings are an exercise in compositional restraint and slow durational procedures, in which the evenness of touch through repeatedly marking the surface of the drawing is key to the realisation of the outcome. The resulting works are an experiment in the relationship of movement and stasis in drawing process and exhibition. The research investigates how drawing can communicate spatial configuration mindfully, through a process of precision and patient method, and how this relates to the inevitability of flux and change. There is an emphasis on visual perception, locating drawing as a phenomenologically organised activity in which repetitive processes record both the drawer’s mind and the drawing’s own making.
The series was commissioned for an exhibition curated by Saturation Point, an editorial platform that explores reductive, geometric and systems practices in contemporary British art. This formed the primary artistic context for the research, placing it within a tradition of British Constructivism, Concrete and Systems Art. Bullen used a computationally reconfigured grid as a guide from which handmade drawings were assembled systematically through point and line.
The drawings are an exercise in compositional restraint and slow durational procedures, in which the evenness of touch through repeatedly marking the surface of the drawing is key to the realisation of the outcome. The resulting works are an experiment in the relationship of movement and stasis in drawing process and exhibition. The research investigates how drawing can communicate spatial configuration mindfully, through a process of precision and patient method, and how this relates to the inevitability of flux and change. There is an emphasis on visual perception, locating drawing as a phenomenologically organised activity in which repetitive processes record both the drawer’s mind and the drawing’s own making.
The series was commissioned for an exhibition curated by Saturation Point, an editorial platform that explores reductive, geometric and systems practices in contemporary British art. This formed the primary artistic context for the research, placing it within a tradition of British Constructivism, Concrete and Systems Art. Bullen used a computationally reconfigured grid as a guide from which handmade drawings were assembled systematically through point and line.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Griffin Gallery, London |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Jan 2018 |