DRAWN preamble

It turns out that DRAWN, which is the show currently on in Plan 9 in Broadmead in Bristol is only open from Wednesday to Saturday, so my initial thoughts on coming to the space and finding it locked were out of place. ("Hmmm. Perhaps this is some sort of ironic statement about how the dominance of multinational corporations in our marketplaces essentially "locks us out" from the available cultural capital in our cities...or maybe the invigilator has a hangover") Er... I just turned up on the wrong day.

It was a wee while before I realised this however, and, thinking that they were probably just a bit tardy in opening up, I took myself off to the nearby Super Sari Sari Philippine Supermarket and Café for a cup of tea to see if someone would've turned up by the time I got finished. Whilst there, I wrote some notes about how difficult it was for artists to put on shows in cooperative or alternative spaces when they usually had to invigilate them themselves. Most artists, for better or worse, have other jobs that they need to take time out from in order to do this, so a lot of shows probably end up subsidised by people's holiday pay, despite the funding they sometimes receive. (This was based on my assumption that the problem with the DRAWN show was that noone could turn up. In any case, it's more of a residency thing there, anyway). What I realised was that the blurb about DRAWN "looping back to a 'perpetual state of becoming'" and "Eschewing the recent emphasis of product over process" (what, in pop surrealism or something?)- paralelled a shrewd bit of logistical planning. This 'perpetual state of becoming' is work that's done on site, and in the space (the artists are relating to their environment), and it also means that time spent on site is at least productive and that there is a minimum of work to do preparatory to appearing (though of course setting out a proposal is a bit of an effort in itself).

I wonder about the "process over product" thing espoused here. I'm all for us trying to peer inside artists' processes, but I do wonder how communicative this can be. One needs a specialised sort of curiosity, I'd argue, to be curious about what's going on. Am I wrong? Is this more zoo-like than I thought (with the artists playing the role of the beasties). I noticed a sign saying "do not feed the artists" which seemed to hope this would prove to be the case, but I have some doubts that will need to wait for a proper look for me to develop further thoughts on it.

I also wrote some notes up about Richard Serra, whose work currently is all about channelling people through a space and having them travel through it and around it: my interpretation was that the "perambulators"- the viewers- were the ones doing the "drawing as a verb" in this case. I have my misgivings about what we viewers, we perambulators, of DRAWN will be able to draw from the show that's on here, but I'll have to reserve judgement until I have a chance to see the show, which in any case is set to become more and more interesting as time goes on.

More on this when I have a chance to see the show.

Comments

[andrew]

Hi Phil,

It's not that visible at first, no. But I think a lot of the artists using the space will be quite keen on the "stealth gallery" idea. Having said that, the first show there was all about customised cars, which aren't exactly wallflower material.

With this one, I think they've started to make some impression on the space, but it'll take a while to get going. I get the impression that most of the artists here aren't used to filling a space on this scale, and the work there would have to compete on the terms of yer reg'lation shop displays to grab folks' attention. I can see why some artists might prefer to take a queiter approach. I think, with the window drawings that have appeared, that there's some attempt being made to do something in a sort of "display" mode, but one looks past it into an empty space. I wonder if it would work better in the winter, when it could be more strategically lit?

In any case, it does kinda blend in, yeah. Fill it full of bubbles and smoke I say, then folks'll KNOW there's some art goin' down.

[Phil Wilson]

Gosh, I just thought it was a closed-down shop! It doesn't really advertise itself very well, does it?