Marks of Depiction: An Investigation of Perception and Processes of Drawing

Abstract

This studio-based research uses drawing as a means of investigating the relationship between a graphic depiction or image made by an artist and the potential response of a viewer. This study investigates how drawn depictions can provide an evolving perceptual experience in which the elusive present becomes a platform for discovery and problem solving. The aim is to demonstrate how such images operate to facilitate cognitive and contemplative engagement, if not to also explain the continuing relevance of the graphic or drawn image. The drawing process in this investigation is not motivated by the sole end of a resolved aesthetic outcome, but the desire to create a depiction that will operate to facilitate cognitive as well as contemplative engagement. The developmental progression or graphic production outlined in this exegesis includes photography and digital manipulation as integral parts of a process leading to graphic depictions on paper and other substrates. Although the source images for depiction are limited to the littoral zone around the waterways of Brisbane, the analysis in the exegesis expands the implications of this translation of perceptions of natural form into material depiction with reference to theoretical authorities on the psychology of perception and mechanics of perceptual response and exemplary historical and contemporary practitioners in drawing. The larger implications of the claim that material graphic outputs can be given agency through a conscious, non-discursive process conducted by an artist can only be resolved in the experience of the encounter with the exhibited work. This project benefits from insights into perception and response in drawn depiction through research in the sciences and humanities, and through works and writings by, or about, other artists. Three authors who have a particular influence on this project are: art historian Barbara Maria Stafford, philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and neurologist Raymond Tallis. The works of contemporary British artist, Emma McNally and Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci are referred to throughout the paper. Other artists referred to are Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945), Edna Andrade (American, 1917–2008), Brett Whiteley (American, 1939–92), and contemporary artists Michael Geddis (Belfast), Nicholas Harding (Australian), Tania Kovats (British), and Constantin Luser (Austrian).