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Process Patterns

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October, 2014

Claire Zakiewicz - live drawing
Meaner Pencil - cello & voice
Michael Hart - curation
PointB Worklodge, New York, USA

This series was performed in complete darkness. Each movement was made in response to particular sounds, a cello and voice, played by Meaner Pencil.

I crafted characters such as a submissive blindfolded draftsperson who responds intuitively to touch or sound through gestural mark-making. I moved further away from the source of control by becoming a paintbrush as I was moved like a tool by a composer/choreographer through contact improvised dance. During another performance I created a drawing by manipulating the movements of an actor who drew in response to my own improvised soundscape. Their role was to truthfully respond to the sounds moment-to-moment within a prescribed set of limitations. While documenting and reflecting on these live drawing experiments strange patterns became apparent that suggested unexplainable unconscious characteristics of perception. On this occasion, I drew without sight for one hour onto a 25’ roll of paper with the Brooklyn-based singer/cellist Meaner Pencil. My focus was on her music, which I responded to via automatic drawing. I soon lost track of my location in the room but the resulting image was impossibly balanced. Another video records my body returning to the ‘correct’ patches of colour when a collaborator passed pots of paint as I worked for hours blindfolded with my attention fixed on the sounds within the room (Performing Colour). Muscle memory and intuition cannot explain the seemingly perfect delivery during these periods where control had been temporarily surrendered. I have a friend who is a data scientist and she recently told me of accounts where blind people can ‘see’ colour – possibly through its wavelength. As far as I am aware any explanation is still hypothetical. - Claire Zakiewicz


 

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The Exit, 2014
Pastel and ink on Arches watercolour paper
300" x 54" (762 x 140cm) 

 

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The Lama, 2014
Pastel and ink on Arches watercolour paper
300" x 54" (762 x 140cm)

 

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All content © Claire Zakiewicz
2023