The Whitworth Performance

On May the 14th Dan Bridgwood Hill and I performed at the Whitworth Gallery as part of the Thursday late program. Dan played an improvised violin solo, and I drew in response.

This drawing was particularly physical because of the new long and thin format of paper I had chosen, I 'traveled' up and down the paper's 10m length many times as I moved closer or further away from the call of Dan's stunning violin playing. The effort of this traveling meant I was aware of my body and the significance of my movements more than the marks at times. I felt I was taking greater risks, even more comfortable in my acts of destruction - erasing obscuring removing, smoothing, gathering and dragging across the surface of the drawing.

I remember feeling at one specific point, and for the first time, that what I was doing was close to dance. My movements during drawings made in response to live music have always been a consequence of trying to get the marks out, rather than making a conscious decision to move my body in a certain way. Here though I felt like I was almost hovering above the drawing, connected to the surface of the paper but not through the making of a mark alone, through many things. Mind, body and material combining more completely than I remember before.

All photography by Andrew Brooks

A film clip of this Performance

Further images of this performance and other recent drawings

Mark Devereux Projects Residency

View more images of my recent work here Gallery