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Self-Portraiture/Self-Prompt

Self-Portraiture/Self-Prompt Gwen Welliver hese drawings explore the expressive potential of line and figure in the mutable spaces that separate abstraction from representation. Beneath T form and surface—skin, if you like—they probe the grotesque physicality inherent in embodied movement. My intent in drawing is not to make a work on paper, it’s to move. Each time I place the charcoal on the page, I try to empty my body and just begin. As it becomes more involved in the drawing, the edges of my face, the time embedded in my skin, the rhythmic drop of weight against the floor, and the emotional tenor of the day—and much more—become marks on the page. The drawings aren’t figurative, they are representational. But the boundaries between the two are fluid, not fixed, and less articulate than we often imagine. Lines can represent specific detail about how something works, some essence of an action—what the subject is attending to while moving—without addressing the outward appearance of the subject. This is how I understand these drawings and my dances. Drawings of this kind propel an ongoing line of inquir y about the activity of the imagination; in part, how imagination can sometimes or suddenly experience the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art MIT Press

Self-Portraiture/Self-Prompt

PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art , Volume 40 (02): 4 – May 1, 2018

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Publisher
MIT Press
Copyright
Copyright © MIT Press
ISSN
1520-281X
eISSN
1537-9477
DOI
10.1162/pajj_a_00420
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Gwen Welliver hese drawings explore the expressive potential of line and figure in the mutable spaces that separate abstraction from representation. Beneath T form and surface—skin, if you like—they probe the grotesque physicality inherent in embodied movement. My intent in drawing is not to make a work on paper, it’s to move. Each time I place the charcoal on the page, I try to empty my body and just begin. As it becomes more involved in the drawing, the edges of my face, the time embedded in my skin, the rhythmic drop of weight against the floor, and the emotional tenor of the day—and much more—become marks on the page. The drawings aren’t figurative, they are representational. But the boundaries between the two are fluid, not fixed, and less articulate than we often imagine. Lines can represent specific detail about how something works, some essence of an action—what the subject is attending to while moving—without addressing the outward appearance of the subject. This is how I understand these drawings and my dances. Drawings of this kind propel an ongoing line of inquir y about the activity of the imagination; in part, how imagination can sometimes or suddenly experience the

Journal

PAJ: A Journal of Performance and ArtMIT Press

Published: May 1, 2018

There are no references for this article.