We know that really, there are no rules for drawing. To draw is a bodily action, engaging with tools and materials to various degrees, but primarily drawing is about exploration.
Contemporary drawing is often described as a journey without a destination, an open-ended process, an awaited discovery. As such, there are no rules with which to define it. The idea behind this exhibition, of rules for drawing is to present a group of artists who work methodically, systematically, and serially within a narrow set of refined and self-selected parameters. Paradoxically, this rigour opens vast tracts of drawing space for discovery. In effect, their reduced and restrictive rules create a space where the process of drawing becomes one with the results.
Drawing is such a simple, humble, and visually direct means of expression. Drawing – the making of marks on a surface - can used as a mode for exploring a visual motif, a particular materiality, the limitations of a tool, as preparation for another practice, or just because it is. A rule can be as simple as drawing only circles, making marks in single colour layers, drawing with a digital device, or devising ways to randomise compositional choices. Drawing can also be a record of unseen actions and ideas. Essentially, drawing is an action but also a journey somewhere. While there are no rules for drawing, artists are free to set rules to draw by.
The exhibition will open on Thursday 1 February and run until Sunday 25 February.
Curated by Lisa Pang.