exhibition

A Parliament Of Lines

In the 21st century, drawing has a renewed importance in the art world and A Parliament Of Lines: Contemporary Scottish Drawing aims to explore how drawing is being used in contemporary art practice.

In continuing the dialogue that RMIT Gallery has engaged with about the role of drawing in contemporary art practice, the drawing exhibition A Parliament of Lines questions what constitutes a drawing, exploring its boundary with painting, animation and photography.

RMIT Gallery Director Suzanne Davies said artists and students would be able to examine how drawing is being used globally in contemporary art practice.

“This is part of an ongoing dialogue in our exhibitions at RMIT Gallery, where we reveal how artists and architects have a very strong notion that drawing is integral to their thinking, creative practice, providing evidence of lingering materiality,” Ms Davies said.

“With drawing, we can see both the finished product and the ideas, but most importantly, we can see the haptic experience of making lines on paper and always, we see it is the thinking hand that remains dominant.”

According to Euan Gray, the curator of A Parliament Of Lines, drawing has remained at the heart of Scottish art education since the Edinburgh College of Art was formed initially as the first drawing school in Britain, over 250 years ago.

He said that the exhibition collectively highlights the creative richness and diversity of the work of artists who are either Scottish or who have passed through the Scottish education system.

The exhibition will focus on five themes, juxtaposing various artists’ work; body/likeness; architecture/Landscape; geometric abstraction; reproduction/film/photography and sculptural investigation

“Drawing is a place where artists deliberate. More than any other medium, drawing reveals artist’s intimate thoughts and workings,” Mr Gray said.

“A drawing can be a number of things. It can be a sketch at the primary stage of artistic invention, or the main vehicle of expression, an end in itself. With a material presence and labour intensive realisation, many drawings today are a reaction against the fleeting experience of images prevalent in our media saturated existence.”

 

Artists

Charles Avery, Paul Chiappe, Layla Curtis, Nathalie De Briey, Moyna Flannigan, Luca Frei, Euan Gray, Sam Griffin, Marie Harnett, Callum Innes, Alan Johnston, Andrew MacKenzie, David Shrigley, Graeme Todd and Ainslie Yule.

Euan Gray interview with Vincent O’Donnell Arts Alive! (iTunes)

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