Drawing
work in progress by Pierre Estable

bcp#12

 

Design, to draw, drawing(s)

Drawings are material things, as oppose to drawing, which is (a) «cosa mentale». Drawing is a way of thinking that involves one's moving body and, in the meantime, something to be thought about.

Drawing is not a result but a process, nor something one has learnt but something one is learning to do (and from) while doing it.

But what does one learn while learning (while drawing)? Difficult question. Answers like: "Thinking with one's entire body" or "Taking one last step from being conscious of a highly complex process to its intuitive form" sound almost mystical.

Drawing is often thought as an armless activity. In the western "art world" and its learned circles the idea of drawing "the best way one can" is a pathetic and laughable one. A draftsman, as oppose to a contemporary artist, is seen as some kind of naïve fool, if not a prehistoric reactionary (if art history starts with Marcel Duchamp) and, in anyway, an unbearable uncool bore.

My aim is to deal with reality and to present the result back to "it", and "it" is the people who are and build that reality. This intention is probably less naïve than its results might lead us to think.

Pierre Estable
Shanghai, March 2012.