DO IT

Tonight we talked Surrealism and worked on Automatism (where DOES the emPHAsis go?) by starting drawings from random inspiration or by just doing. The only parameters are that the drawings be 22" x 30" and use an entire ink cartridge from a new ballpoint or rollerball type pen. Stay tuned for images.

For our next trick we will draw from instructions. But first the instructions must be written. Students will check out Hans Ulrich Obrist's DO IT to see what kinds of instructions artists wrote for the ongoing project. Then they will write three different instructions to bring to class and we will draw form the instructions.

Above is Yoko Ono's instructions for her Wish Piece from DO IT

Cadavres Exquises

The first night of class we jumped right into creating spontaneous drawings. Playing the Surrealist game "The Exquisite Corpse" (Cadavre Exquis) we created a series of drawings. The ones that used the more "traditional" body forms were more successful than those we created based on a theme. The themes we worked with were: Time, Space, Science and Language . Of the ones based on themes, Science was the hardest to work with and the one that yielded the most cliche imagery. That told us we need to work on expanding our ideas about Science and what kind of imagery we might abstract from. The students will be bringing in imagery to fill an image bank and we will revisit the topic in a later class.

To see some other examples of our Exquisite Corpses look here.

Read Andre Breton's First Surrealist Manifesto here.

2,000 Sticky Notes

Second night of class and we worked collaboratively to produce a wall drawing made from about 2,000 sticky notes. The discussion before starting centered on how collaboration works, what rules we wanted--if any and how we would approach the process. Nate suggested working silently with an "anything goes" rule. After a vote we decided to start that way. After a half hour, we checked in and discussed some formal concerns, then jumped right back in. This time, we talked as we worked. The consensus was that we needed to pull the composition in and move upwards. The giant ladder was retrieved from the sculpture studio and up we moved. Concerns about shape and color as well as rhythm were all addresses pretty seemlessly. Devon declared "There's good energy in this room!" And truly, there was. When we had finished and documented the project, the drawing (which took two hours to make) was disassembled in one minute flat.

To see all the photos from tonight's class, look here.

Witness the impermanence of non-traditional art: