WELCOME TO THE ABYSS!
WELCOME TO THE ABYSS!
Syllabus by Kristofor Giordano
Foregrounded by vocabularies of opacity that (dis)appear along lines of inquiry, theory, representation, writing, activism, and performance, drawing will be pursued as an interdisciplinary action, a plan of action, and an act; the substrate as a multidimensional ground—or a potential field—in an ongoing process of being written and rewritten.
Ten drawing exercises will engage the slippery undercurrent of thought, language, and action—what might be underdefined as a haunting element—within our more or less structured daily experience. As opposed to offering oneself up to social networks, we want to underscore the subterranean, meandering, necessarily disorganized material traces carried through the drawing act itself. From here, we may see if anything resembling a new language, a language of the dead (or the undead) forms to guide heterogenous (chthonic) logics of meaning/exchange.
Another potential undertaking of this meet-up schedule is to recognize efforts to elevate the drawing form’s prestige within “time-honored” regimes of art and image-making as a form of counterinsurgency. Instead, we may embrace the petrified status of drawing—its supplemental, secondary, efficient, functional, two-dimensional operations—as the source of its intelligence. Allowing drawing to remain down-to-earth where it belongs may let us consider its insurgent grammar alongside other discursive operators of immateriality—forms like speech and performance—that are characterized by mobility, openness, and transience.
Some of the questions we may ask include: How is drawing (to invoke Amy Sillman) like speaking and reaching at the same timey—“a formation of relations,” “a model for experience,” or “a form of manual thinking?” How do drawings notate—diagrammatically, experientially, imaginatively—through movement? How do drawings touch the limits of signification? Do diagrams dream? How many dimensions can a drawing activate? What are the materials needed for drawing?
Our meet-ups/exercises will occur virtually and in-person, across various time zones and backgrounds. At this schedule’s conclusion, we will assemble the material, documentation, ephemera, recordings of our ten meet-ups/exercises into a digital archive. We will discuss what other group projects may extend from our engagements: a show, a digital pyre, a database, a time capsule, or other newly-invented arrangement.
WELCOME TO THE ABYSS! Syllabus link
Readings
