Prophetic Diagrams - georgeandjorgen.com

Prophetic Diagrams
George and Jørgen, December 14th 2012 – February 16th 2013
9 Morocco Street
London
SE1 3HB
Curated by William Corwin
Introduction
My school-chum Eddie and I went rooting through a dumpster one cold evening in the fall of 1993 in the
East Village of Manhattan. We were 16 years old, and bookish fellows, and someone, or some
organization, had decided to empty the contents of a library. Most of the books were Christian themed,
but one little volume I discovered had lots of pictures, seemed pretty old and was printed in a spidery
gothic script. When we examined the book back at my parents’ apartment, we discovered it was some
kind of text on the black arts. It consumed a couple of days of our time, but as we didn’t speak German
and I wouldn’t let Eddie borrow it, the book soon got lost in the myriad piles of stuff that cohabitated in
my house with myself and my parents.
I found the book again this summer, and this time my buddy Akiva, a Talmudic scholar and dabbler in
the occult, who does speak German, leafed excitedly through the brittle pages, stopping to read a
passage, that, as it turned out, was an incantation to summon Lucifer himself. Luckily we had none of
the accoutrements needed to call upon the Prince of Darkness—one requires lamb’s blood and sheep
skin. There was also the logic of the situation. Though Akiva was keen to procure the necessaries to
perform the spell (you can obtain anything in New York on a Wednesday evening), I had to argue that
we really needed a good reason to call up a demon, it’s not just something you do for fun.
The drawings in the book were mostly crude renderings of demonic personalities-Lucifer, Beezlebub,
Astaroth, some of whom had devious , if not bemused faces, but others, like Sataniacha or Nebiros,
seemed to resemble tadpoles or lighting fixtures more than horrifying monsters. Each demon came
with his (or her) personal symbol as well: despite a lack of drawing skill, the authors of the book seemed
to have a disturbing familiarity with the dark spirits, more technical than fearful. The little squiggles
next to the illustrations looked like paper clips that had been fed into a pencil sharpener—they had a
text or rune like quality, but also vaguely resembled something off a circuit board; a bit of gibberish with
some math or alchemy thrown in. Whoever had invented this language was trying to be cryptic and
convincing at the same time. Still, with all the pentagrams and circles throughout the book, it was clear
that the observations of Tycho Brahe, Copernicus and Galileo were incorporated by the authors to
create a more accurate and user-friendly resource.
So we didn’t summon Lucifer that evening, but I was struck by the fact that besides a few incantations
and supplicatory overtures to the devil (in the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Ghost of all
things!) the vast majority of the spell was concerned with describing the visual nature of the process.
Specific diagrams needed to be drawn, objects carefully arranged. It was less important to persuade the
demon to come to you with words than to call upon them with images he/she recognized—it it was all
about drawing.
Diagram to summon Lucifer
First off, this exhibition is not about summoning the dead, or undead, or the Dark Lord. But it is about
drawing or diagramming the unseen or unseeable. Drawing is so often subsumed as a very practical
preparatory act of the artist, or, in an effort to be very not-preparatory, it can often be very finished—
very inky, or very big—but the theme of this exhibition, prophetic drawings, is more about the artist’s
preparing their thinking, not necessarily for anything in particular, but a necessary ordering of the
universe, a summoning of the artistic spirits.
There was a time when artists were Really Useful people and their creations, like the wooden Yipwon of
the Sepik River, were actually expected to go out and hunt enemies, or their small blue faience
hippopotami were thought to romp through Egyptian tombs once the lights went out, causing trouble
and breaking things (so the hippopotami always had their legs preemptively broken so they would stay
put). Then people started to read, and then they got iphones and you could order dinner without having
to even talk to anybody. The less one has to struggle with the needs of everyday life, the less necessary
it seems for the average person to be in touch with the cycles of the universe. That doesn’t mean that
the cycles have stopped or that the spirits aren’t still in the forest.
Some drawings also engage in the illusion of “looking like,” discerning the hidden meaning, or hidden
existence of one object in another—images of magic mountains or cartoon characters are seemingly
innocent at first but often portray the age-old diety hidden behind the seemingly benevolent bear or
chipper mouse. The magic mountain, when drawn correctly exposes the God’s house returning us to a
time when we needed intervention in everyday life and those whom we asked for help resided much
closer than we are now willing to admit.
Artist diagrams and drawings require less conscious practicality now than when they had an avowed
purpose, but the work is often more personal, more diaristic, it has a more private face. Because of this
it can often be more universal—there isn’t a need to resemble the other work the artists makes, or it
can experiment with new ways and new paths, which is more personally prophetic, or it can be the artist
not caring about the viewer, being less self-conscious, questioning the very nature of what art is
supposed to do.
Very often as an artist you have to tone-down the rhetoric: recent developments on the artist side of
the art market would have us be a profession, small entrepreneurs who create a product. The fact is
that artists can never be self-sufficient—society needs them as much as they need society, and what
they create does explain the motion of the planets, the changing of the tides and occasionally the need
to summon a demon. Certain by-products of that process can be quantified and sold, but the process
itself, of maintaining the rains and ensuring the community is well fed and the Gods appeased is ongoing
and hasn’t really changed since someone first hacked a little figurine out of bone in order to insure their
mate came back from the hunt in one piece, or gave birth safely.
I sent the above essay to the artists listed below and told them to run with the idea of “diagrams.”
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the show was seeing what they came back with.
Artists in the exhibition:
Chris Baker, Mike Ballou, Chris Bloor and Nathaniel Mellors, William Corwin, Rose Davey, Julius
Doehner, Claire Dorsett, Clara Fialho, Paddy Gould and Roxy Topia, Kitty Junkbrother, Ronnie
Landfield, Noah Landfield, Sarah Lucas, Paulina Michnowska, Roxy Paine, Elise Co and Nik Pashenkov,
Simon Patterson, Bruce Pearson, Joyce Pensato, Dan Perfect, James Pimperton, Nathlie Provosty,
Fiona Rae, Carin Riley, Nick Roberts, Gaetan Sigonney, Lucy Skaer, Sandi Slone, Bob and Roberta
Smith, Ellen Stanford, Pinky Tesfay, James Trimmer, Jessica Voorsanger, Tom Webb, Andy Wicks, and
Holly Zausner
Regions
The exhibition is divided into 3 main regions with a fourth for hybrids and slippery pieces that don’t
quite fit under any heading. These regions are: place, entity, and regulating geometries. There are
some pieces that could be one or the other and the boundaries are permeable, very permeable. I had
some sense of these regions when I first sat down to think about the show, but as the artists submitted
their work and their own interpretations of what artist diagrams are, I gained a firmer picture of the
different tropes some of these images follow. There is no claim to any encyclopedic, final or
representative definition in this exhibition, these are only some diagrams and drawings made by some
artists some of the time.
Place
With many artists, diagrams and drawings are a longing for, or an aspiration to an alternate reality,
sometimes spiritual, sometimes purely organizational. These other places can be recognized as
representational images, but also recognisable symbols from the lexicon of human ritual and history.
Magic mountains feature prominently, these can be read as houses of God(s); maps are common as
well. Often a diagram simply evokes a sense of place or location of something happening, or the
potential for something to take place.
Entity
Many of the diagrams are portraits of a sort, an image of a being or an entity. The being or entity may
have power, or it may be a summation of objects or other beings, so that it represents a sense of
connectedness or a nexus of ideas. The being can be a commonplace figure in the collective
consciousness or a form that has become so ubiquitous that its origins are no longer questioned. By
featuring it as a regular character in their drawing practice, and artist can revisit the history of that form
or entity, breathing new life into an image we take for granted.
Regulating Geometries
In their most basic form, diagrams illustrate appoint of some kind. They appear in textbooks and
instruction manuals explicating a process. Filtered through a mystical of conceptual sieve, these
explanatory diagrams take on a universality, not just explaining a singular process, but adding on
multiple dimensions, examining processes of creation, or history, or inventing new processes that
perhaps follow a new and as yet unexplored or unexplained set of rules.
Under many of the titles there is a link to an online interview with the artist on Art International Radio
Place
Sarah Lucas
Mount Meru, 2012, cigarettes and butcher paper
101.6 x 120 cm
http://artonair.org/show/sarah-lucas
Noah Landfield
Untitled, 2012, mixed media on paper
22.5 x 30 cm
Clara Fialho
Untitled, 2012, mixed media on paper
29.5 x 39 cm
Ronnie Landfield
Untitled, 2012, acrylic on paper
28.5 x 39.5cm
http://artonair.org/show/ronnie-landfield
Gaetan Sigonney
Motherboard 1+1 = Consequence, 2012, ink on paper
99.5 x 70.5 cm
William Corwin
Robespierre, 2012, gouche on paper
32 x 22.5 cm
Sandi Slone
Untitled, 2012, mixed media on paper
37.5 x 30.5 cm
http://artonair.org/show/sandi-slone
Dan Perfect
Headhunter, 2012, ink, watercolour, pastel on paper
46 x 61 cm
Andy Wicks
Plane Site I, 2012, print on canvas in resin and ink on polyester
35.5 x 25.5 cm each
Claire Dorsett
Threshold, 2012, pencil on paper
21 x 30 cm
James Pimperton
Feeler, 2012, pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.5 cm
Entity
Mike Ballou
Untitled, 2012, ink on paper
34 x 45.5 cm
http://artonair.org/show/michael-ballou
Carin Riley
Untitled, 2012, goache on paper with wood appliqué
75 x 66 cm
Joyce Pensato
Mickey, 2012, enamel on paper
30.5 x 22.5 cm
http://artonair.org/show/joyce-pensato
Dan Perfect
Head (Meatron), 2009, oil and acrylic on linen,
32 x 38 cm
Fiona Rae
Untitled (small collage no.3), mixed media on archive paper on board
19.2 x 16.1 cm
http://artonair.org/show/fiona-rae
Roxy Topia and Paddy Gould
Does my femininity look big in this? (from the Internal Clitoris Series) 2012,
mixed pens and airbrush on bristol board, 69.5 x 52 cm (framed)
Lucy Skaer
Solid Ground – Rib, 2006, aluminium leaf on Fabriano paper
140 x 200 cm
http://artonair.org/show/lucy-skaer
Chris Bloor and Nathaniel Mellors
Untitled, 2012, mixed media
50 x 57 cm
http://artonair.org/show/british-art-show-2011-artist-nathaniel-mellors
Jessica Voorsanger
This is London, St. James’s Park & House Guards Parade p.83 , 2012, mixed media collage, 17.5 x 24 cm
This is London, Belgrave Square, p.67, 2012, mixed media collage, 17.5 x 24 cm
Paulina Michnowska
Gun, 2012, watercolour on paper
28.5 x 38 cm
Holly Zausner
G Woman (edition of 3), 2001, silver gelatin print
25 x 20 cm
http://artonair.org/show/holly-zausner-criminal
Tom Webb
Now I See See My Luna, 2012, pencil on stitched fabric
108.5 x 75.5cm
James Trimmer
Untitled (sketchbook pages), 2012, biro on paper
20.9 x 12.8 cm
Regulating Geometries
Roxy Paine
Untitled, 2012, ink on paper
56.5 x 76 cm
Simon Patterson
The Last Supper Arranged According to the Flat Back Four Formation (J.C. in goal), 1990/3
Aperto Venice Biennale sketch for wall drawing
38 x 45.5 cm (framed), Private collection London
Monkey Business, 1993, Original collage for wall drawing faxed to The Grey Art Gallery, N.Y.
37.5 x 54.5cm (framed), Private collection London
http://artonair.org/show/simon-patterson
Nathlie Provosty
Mark (After Khitrovo), 2012, egg yolk and gouache on sheepskin
30 x 22 cm
Julius Dörner
Office Works # 6/17, Helsinki 2012, Paper, post-it, pencil, tape, clear plastic foil, clipboard, 30 x 21.5 cm
Office Works # 4/17, Helsinki 2012, Paper, post-it, pencil, tape, clear plastic foil, clipboard, 30 x 21.5 cm
Elise Co and Nik Pashenkov
Oscillator 1, 2, 3, 4, 2007, Pencil, phosphor and metallic ink on paper
30.5 x 38cm
Pinky Tesfay
Not One Like The Other, 2012, mixed media
111 x 75 cm
Bruce Pearson
Password, 2011, acrylic on Paper
25.5 x 17 cm
Rose Davey
Untitled Diptych, 2012, pastel on paper
30.5 x 21 cm each
Slippery Pieces
Bob and Roberta Smith
Art Makes Children Powerful, 2012, oil on board, 21 x 32 cm
Public Space is Good, 2012, oil on board, 23.5 x 30.5 cm
Cultural Learning Must Mean Practical Activity, 2012, oil on board, 23.5x30.5 cm
The Public is Open Private is Closed, 2012, oil on board, 18.5 x 32 cm
Ellen Stanford
Boot, 2012, graphite on paper
21 x 30 cm
Chris Baker
Untitled, 2012, Monoprint
18 x 15 cm
Nick Roberts
Untitled, 2012, mixed media
39.5 x 43 cm