>Ian Dawson
>C&C residency_ C&C Gallery _ 2015_ Curated by Ian Dawson with Louisa Minkin Michael Colegate, Mhairi Vari, Jenny Dunseath, Nicola Thomas, John Greenwood, Claude Heath. With contributions from Andrew Jones, Marta Diaz-Guardamino Kevin Colgate and John Dickinson- Lilley
In the summer of 2015, C&C Gallery hosted an innovative residency programme. The collaborating artists transformed the gallery space into a dynamic studio environment to facilitate the production of artworks. The merging of gallery with artist’s studio challenged the traditional boundaries of these spaces, and looked to expand the idea of artistic practice.
When conceiving of the residency there was a sense that a broad thematic might be useful, that an imposition would restrain and liberate in unexpected ways. Taking the starting point from Jaques Derrida's Memoirs for the Blind which describes drawing as an act of blindness – rooted as it is in both memory and anticipation, taking the action of seeing and replacing it with that of mediation. Marks of a drawing have multiple characters: lines on a page as well as indicators of contour; lacking a "pure" identity they obscure the visual experience.
But what of the expanded field of drawing, drawing is not just a mark on a paper- it is a sound in space, an action within a time and place, a rich and complex mapping process- involving sculptural and performative activities.
In Derrida’s thesis, the depiction of a blind person is a multiple statement of blindness and sight in itself, how then could the extended activities of drawing be used to depict the blind? And how do these then become statements of and about blindness and sight? What new information would they illicit? What positions could they expose?
The artists working alongside each other as well as contributions by archaeologists and John Dickinson-Lilley, the the residency sort to be a lively experimental environment to consider the notions set out above in both a creative and practical way.
>C&C Residency _ C&C Gallery London_ 01.08.15-01.09.15