Phil Sawdon

DRAWING (NO)THING(S)
(Some)thing(s) of no importance … (un)important fragment(s) … 

Phil Sawdon

The Fictional Museum of Drawing continues to attract the blurred notice of strangers … not the new … as yet (un)imaginable non-museum, still subterranean regardless of being no further realised … a contradictory paradoxical corpus of no things, non, notwithstanding some things of no importance … indefinitely (un)built, periodically framed, site not yet known … (un)known … what is not and that is … in print … with nothing markedly original and or interesting to impart.

Soaked and steeped in [arts] meaning perhaps a draughter’s labour is to find a way out of the labyrinthine Museum … to a non-site where ironically the (un)doing of a drawings’ meaning will inevitably be recovered by the Museum, aided by string, it will become (un)conventional.

The annals present barely a modicum that is worthy of annotation. As has become customary visitors comment that there are matters to relate which excite regret, more than invite us to applaud.

There may well be occasions to renew that thinking.

Meanwhile, the Museum has received contributions. It is rumoured that Eva’s pencil has been exercised whilst (un)drawn. The cabinets and shelves are groaning, consigned to an obscure corner, an open frame or perhaps to a drawer, where they can seldom ever be seen.

‘The draughts are realising themselves!’ 

‘Is that likely?’

Aside: ‘Such superfluities are either numerous nor ponderous.’ 

‘Perhaps they are enough to secure a rationale for pressing the need of furnishing additional galleries?’

There is almost no likelihood of draughting (un)objectionable plans for the creation of a building. Consequently … a recommendation for serious and immediate consideration … a prepositional proposition to attempt to obtain the structure now occupied by the Museum but as yet (un)built. There is reason to believe that such a non-building might be acquired on sympathetic terms, and that, without any drawings, it might be (un)drawn, erased, in order to provide sufficient room for the ‘additions’ in perpetuity, without any interference from the galleries which are still (un)used by the Museum. 

The arranging and displaying of the contents of the Museum is timeless. A number of illustrated small brown birds, previously in the drawers, have been stuffed and so positioned as to render the Museum ineffectual and so it goes … a collection of stuffed birds whose feeding is prohibited.

Please note that on the question of the studying of pen and scholarly papers little progress has been made. It appears that attention has been directed chiefly to other improvements and in this there is a belief that they are carrying out, in the most effectual manner, the fallacies of the founder … the present keeper.

In addition to the indulgences and improvements various objects new to us all … hand-picked from the Museum archive have not been as expedient as they might be. An instance which it may not be relevant to mention … laid line on line … symptoms of decay … many of the descriptive labels have become obliterated …

‘… nothing of the kind.’ 

It is with regret that historically the lines of the Museum, have been so narrow; and seem to have been involved more with the stuff of funding than philosophical inquiry, however, we can now conjecture the adoption of a plan for erecting a larger and more striking structure, and having undergone various amendments, which prompted delay in the implementation of the design, it is finally agreed on and the foundation-stone will be drawn. 

The site is one of the finest that could be found for the various objects that will be on display albeit rarely. The upper when finished, according to the undertaker will be at once (un)seen and when suitably fitted up, will display the collection to the greatest advantage. 

Meanwhile, visits to the collections have included the head who has, by permission, taken rubbings from various inscriptions, among which the ‘G’ stands conspicuous. These marks were for transmission with others of the same kind attesting to the benefit of the local repositories … destroyed or dispersed.

The embarrassments which previously impeded progress and limited operations,
are now fast disappearing, and it is hoped that, in a short time, all these (un)pleasant reminiscences of the past will be but incentives to renewed exertion for the future … under a little obscurity, more than usually brief … having occurred of a nature to demand a particular remark … salvaged or preserved in black and white?