Using a diagram in art feels very graphical to me. An area I try an avoid due to my background and 'other job'. I have a design brain, it likes to arrange things, it likes to order items, align them. Normally. However, when I am creating art I try to put that part of my brain away, it doesn't always work, especially when it comes to finishing something, displaying anything or depicting a created piece. There has to be a balance and I believe the two can work in harmony.
BARR, Alfred H (1902-1981), Jr. Cubism and Abstract Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936.
Although a digram of art movements it can also be considered art in itself. A diagram by the then director of The Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Barr in 1936 depicting the different movements and connections between the rapidly changing art movements at the beginning of the 20th Century.
As discussed in the brief for this workshop diagrams are used so much in daly life we almost forget they are diagrams, they become part of life, they inform us and sometimes confuse us. The London Underground map, IKEA instructions... We were asked to look at how we might depict one or more of the following:
• Draw a diagram of your family relationships.
• Draw a diagram of the places that you regularly visit and how they fit together.
• Draw a diagram of the things you like to do.
• Draw a diagram of your house.
• Draw a diagram of your body.
• Draw a diagram of how you think.
• Draw a diagram of everything in the world, divided into categories .
I decided to see if I could do them all, spending about 15 minutes on each one and creating them on tracing paper to collectively create a layered piece.
I tried to keep things simple and also depict in a diagrammatical way the first thing that came into my head. Keeping any images graphical and simple. I chose a fine line pen and tracing paper as I felt it suited the concept, giving it a feeling of a plan or architects drawing and by overlaying the various sheets creating a bigger picture, a deeper and fuller collective piece.
I was creating images that had some information, there was no key. I knew what I was drawing and what they meant but I didn't give all the information to totally understand them on first view, I wanted to leave some interest, some intrigue. For instance on the diagram of my body I indicated various points and dates. These were the various reasons I have been in hospital or a medical facility and when these had taken place (roughly) but I didn't want to tell everyone. It was for me to know. It still is. The diagram of what I like to do could be interpreted but equally it was quite symbolic and graphic in its approach, there was no key again, the reader could probably make out the subjects but may still not be totally sure.
I really enjoyed the process of this workshop, it meant I had to work fast but reasonably accurately to depict my thoughts on the various subjects. My graphical orderly brain was definitely switched back on for this one.
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