15th March 2023 11-12.30(GMT)

From an open call for paper presentations, this is the first in a series of events organised by the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, exploring the theme drawing in relation.

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drn2023-drawing-in-relation-dialogic-exchange-tickets-553418578867

This panel brings together researchers looking at aspects of dialogic exchange. Carole Lévesque and Thomas-Bernard Kenniff will reflect on the design and curatorial position developed for ‘Drawing Conversations,’ a recent exhibition presented at the Centre de design in Montréal, Canada, for which the two presenters were co-curators. They will consider the relational aspects of drawing practice and situate it within assemblages contingent on temporal, material, and investigative dimensions, or, in other words, as a situated process of making sense. Marili de Weerdt will discuss ‘The Art of Climbing a tree’ a body of collaborative artworks that investigate the ways in which the act of drawing can be seen as a form of communication and interaction between the human and non-human. de Weerdt will suggest that collaborative drawing offers new perspectives on the interconnectedness of things and suggest that the act of drawing can be a means of fostering a more respectful relationship with the non-human natural world. Susan Turcot will discuss a collaboration with forest researchers and participants in which a set of interactive drawn cards continues to evolve around climate (change) and its effect on the phenological cycle of trees. Turcot will share the relationships that have emerged through this drawing practice with birch and birch users as well as with scientists and members of the public in both urban and rural contexts.

The session will be chaired by Rachel Gadsden-Hayton.

Biographies

Carole Lévesque is professor in environmental design and director of the École de design, UQAM, where she teaches the theory, critique and practice of design. Perception of derelict places and drawing are part of her research practice, as seen in her latest book Places of the Everyday. Finding Room in Beirut (Punctum Books, 2019) and exhibition La précision du vague (Centre de design, 2019). 

Thomas-Bernard Kenniff is professor in environmental design and director of graduate programs at the École de design, UQAM. His work has addressed uncertainty and dialogue as design paradigms, as well as the political implications of drawing. He cofounded the Bureau d’étude de pratiques indisciplinées with Carole Lévesque in 2016 and coedited Urban Inventories (BéPI, 2021). He holds a PhD from the Bartlett School of Architecture.

Marili de Weerdt was born and is currently situated in Pretoria, South Africa. As an artist-researcher they are interested in the intersection between the process of making, cultivation, indigenous botany and ecological being. de Weerdt values the explorative, tacit, and experimental actions of practice-led research and sharing the experience of collaborative making.

Susan Turcot is an artist and Professor of drawing at the University of Québec in Montreal presently researching collaborative and meaning-making processes with plants and their indicating messages.

Rachel Gadsden-Hayton is a British visual and performance artist, researcher and disability activist who exhibits and performs nationally and internationally. Expressionist in approach, she creates solo exhibitions, performances and collaborative social engagement art projects with disabled, vulnerable, and mainstream individuals and communities, through drawing painting, performance, digital film, with the object of developing cross-cultural dialogues considering universal notions of humanity. Rachel was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from London South Bank University, 2016, and in July 2021 she gained a studentship to undertake PhD doctorial research (by practice) at Loughborough University.www.rachelgadsden.com

Other events in the series include:
‘Affect and Agency’ 19th April 2023
‘Sound and Motion’ 17th May 2023
‘Spaces of Care’ 7th June 2023