LAUGHINGDRAWINGS 2009
drawings
drawings
Laughter and its relation to work/praxis (from Greek prattein: “to do” in the sense of acting), and poiesis (from Greek poiein: “to produce” in the sense of bringing into being).
The laughing drawings are drawings made within the energy of laughter: for a period of more or less 3 months I made a laughing drawing each day.
The laughter is the motor for the drawing, the laughter makes the drawing appear. I force myself to mechanically produce laughter, which at the same time creates a drawing. I use the situation of laughter as an intimate situation. I’m alone while I’m doing these drawings.
The results do not have a logical form (formless), they look like sketches with no apparent sense. While I’m doing the drawings, I record myself and I show the result in front of the camera.
What are these laughable drawings? What kind of product are these drawings? The laughter as an energy to practice, as energy for producing. But what kind of product?
The failure element. The result as a failure, in the strict sense of the product. The failure is accentuated in the fact that this product has no apparent function, nor even a sense of beauty. The proposal, the motor that brings me into the realization of this daily activity is questioning the product as a result. The fact that this proposal is a questionable product, reinforces the question.
In this way the paradox of the meaning of failure became visible: the product as failure, the fact that the work exactly brings this evidence to the surface, that this question has been made visible, exactly provides the evidence for the work not being a failure in itself at all.
Presenting the work, a certain number of drawings are put together, to create another drawing.
What kind of pattern shows up in the combination? Is there a sense appearing out of the puzzling of several drawings? Does the recombination of different ‘non-sensical’ drawings add a kind of sense to them? These are the questions that I’m playing with. The question of sense being constructed through simple daily labour, through a daily constancy in the producing of these drawings.
The laughing drawings are drawings made within the energy of laughter: for a period of more or less 3 months I made a laughing drawing each day.
The laughter is the motor for the drawing, the laughter makes the drawing appear. I force myself to mechanically produce laughter, which at the same time creates a drawing. I use the situation of laughter as an intimate situation. I’m alone while I’m doing these drawings.
The results do not have a logical form (formless), they look like sketches with no apparent sense. While I’m doing the drawings, I record myself and I show the result in front of the camera.
What are these laughable drawings? What kind of product are these drawings? The laughter as an energy to practice, as energy for producing. But what kind of product?
The failure element. The result as a failure, in the strict sense of the product. The failure is accentuated in the fact that this product has no apparent function, nor even a sense of beauty. The proposal, the motor that brings me into the realization of this daily activity is questioning the product as a result. The fact that this proposal is a questionable product, reinforces the question.
In this way the paradox of the meaning of failure became visible: the product as failure, the fact that the work exactly brings this evidence to the surface, that this question has been made visible, exactly provides the evidence for the work not being a failure in itself at all.
Presenting the work, a certain number of drawings are put together, to create another drawing.
What kind of pattern shows up in the combination? Is there a sense appearing out of the puzzling of several drawings? Does the recombination of different ‘non-sensical’ drawings add a kind of sense to them? These are the questions that I’m playing with. The question of sense being constructed through simple daily labour, through a daily constancy in the producing of these drawings.