Live Art

Abstract

Typically expressed as beats per minute (or bpm) the sound of the heartbeat while drawing becomes an aid – a way to experience, absorb and measure time. In considering the body as a drawing tool, it is the sound of blood and the concept of blood as a marking material that introduces the role of the artist’s body. In introducing a performance-based practice that is engaged in the landscape, the writing also is an investigation into how movement and environmental references, like the earth’s riverbeds and mountainous structures, can offer an understanding of the body and can form a particular relationship to the land.

In reference to Iceland, the artist Carali McCall suggests ways to look at measurements of time and the nature of colour to make associations. The article describes artworks by Roni Horn and Barry Le Va and texts by Donna Haraway. Prompted by the troubling matters confronted when making work today, such as climate change and the polarisation of social and economic upheaval, the paper aims to adopt, acknowledge and encourage native and indigenous philosophies and land acknowledgements – to support a kinder, sustainable attitude to making and addressing things both subjectively and objectively.

Interpreted through the artist’s practice and the body as a drawing instrument, the artworks Circle Drawing and Performing Rock are both described; the first being a series of large-scale drawings made on paper and compressed graphite with blood as a result of the repetitive action. And the other, a work made by performing both ‘in’ and ‘of’ the landscape – holding a rock as an act of endurance. Documented as a live performance, both address the weight of things and the longing for lines of empathy and connection.

Notes

1 References first introduced in conversation with artist Maryclare Foá. See Bell Burnell (2013) and see also Foá (2020).

2 This collection of essays includes further discussion of how landscapes are steeped in meaning and significance and addresses scale, mobility and the long history of landscapes and technology.

3 The term ‘landscape’ derives from the Dutch word landschap, meaning ‘region, tract of land’ and acquired the artistic connotation of ‘a picture depicting scenery on land’ in the early 1500s (American Heritage Dictionary 2000). See The J. Paul Getty Museum (2022).

4 The artist Birgir Andrésson was born to blind parents and his childhood was based in Iceland’s Reykjavík Blind People’s Home. See Hobbs (2022) and Andrésson (2022).

5 Pantone is a company and producer of commercially standard colours. See Pantone (2023) and Santos (2014).