Performance drawing: new practices since 1945

Abstract

When does a drawing turn into a performance? Is the act of drawing in itself a performative process, whether a viewer is present or not? Performance Drawing: New Practices Since 1945 is an exploration of interdisciplinary artists who actively use the term or express the ‘performative’ in their drawing practice or are connected by both performance and drawing. Drawing upon their own practice-based research, original interviews, literature review, reflections on and analysis of artists’ works, the authors illuminate what it might mean to perform, and what it might mean to draw, in contemporary practice since 1945. As the first book to be published on this subject, the term ‘performance drawing’ is used as a trope, or a thread of thinking, to describe a process of drawing dedicated to broadening the field through resourceful practices and cross-disciplinary influence. While engaged in the act of drawing as a performative process, the book addresses themes of ephemerality and immediacy that encompass body and energy, time and motion, light and space, intention and execution, liveness and documentation. It examines dynamic interactions through cross-disciplinary influences, addressing key developments and future directions that are dedicated to broadening the field of drawing and inspiring a diverse range of approaches to performance drawing. Acclaimed practitioners since 1945, such as Alison Knowles, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Long, Robert Morris, Trisha Brown and William Kentridge, have been instrumental in instituting and exposing the relationship between drawing and performing. This book provides the foundation behind these pioneers, alongside a platform for current and emerging international artists, and for those working between the boundaries of the genre. Merging experiences and disciplines in the expanded field has established a vibrant art movement that has been progressively burgeoning in the last few years