This “Fragment from a Torn Drawing” is from between 1994-1996. During this period I was making very physically aggressive and obsessive all-over drawings. I was interested in making long repeated marks across the paper and how this would create a kind of grid that started looking like a form of writing system, like hieroglyphics.
This particular one was started first with pencils and perhaps markers. There is a later layer of pastel added and the oil and stains came later still. Some of the works I made during this same time were drawn on both sides and often times I would tear the drawings up into smaller shards. I was also tearing up maps and atlases into small shards and I saw a kind of physical and metaphorical relationship between the two.
“(Untitled) Fragment from a Torn Drawing” will be included in the exhibition “Raw Materials” at (SCENE) Metro Space in East Lansing, MI curated by Robert McCann. On view September 9 – October 23. This work has never been exhibited until this time.
Tags: drawing, fragment, msu, pastel, pencil, process, stains