In February this year, Cathedral Collective staged a group exhibition in Arts Art Centre, in Newtownards. The show had been postponed for close to two years because of the pandemic. Here is the press release:
“The artists formerly known as Cathedral Studios Belfast present New Forms, their first exhibition as a collective. Having moved out of their Belfast studio space of 18 years in October last year, the four artists; Lisa Ballard, Tristan Barry, Kevin Miller and John Macormac intend to keep showing work together. New Forms is a body of high quality, abstract, new works. The overarching concept of the show is to challenge each studio member to push their works beyond figuration and the restrictions of working to a specific set of instructions, to explore hitherto unknown territory. The group have continually influenced one another’s practice over the years, nuanced components of this show make this influence visible.
The Georgian gallery will be filled with expressive oil paintings, geometric drawings, digital prints and powder paint coated sculptures that provide a vibrant, immersive experience for visitors to the gallery that rewards repeat visits. The exhibition will reflect the diversity of art practices that each member of the collective specialises in.”
It was heartening to show work again as a group in such a beautiful building. I made a durational drawing during the exhibition, as a way of activating the space and allowing a component of the show to change and build over the run.
Durational drawing February 2022.
The Sunburst gallery room is still. Sunlight filters through pale green gauze. Outside, a busker with an electric saxophone enthusiastically covers My heart will go on by Celine Dion. The distinct smell of graphite is in the air, mingled with disinfectant from the fastidious cleaner’s mop bucket. Loading a roller with white emulsion, I reflect how easily many hours of labour can be quickly obliterated.
This piece came from desire for a self-determined challenge, a project during the run of long delayed New Forms, a group exhibition by Cathedral Collective. I wanted to spend time in this space, to activate it in the hours spent there, use it as a temporary studio. Having moved out of our long held premises in Cathedral Buildings in October last year, I crave focussed spaces to make art, process, and look out the window.
As it progressed, the wall came to loosely resemble a drawing made on the walls of the Orpheus building during the first year of my MFA. That piece was made over several weeks, accumulating traced and transferred marks from the room environment. Forms appeared multiplied like organic growth of mould across the walls (i). It was amorphous, unfocussed, with no definite end point. Subsequent wall pieces learnt from this, adhered to considered time limits and pre written instructions (ii).
The Sunburst gallery drawing combined these approaches. The drawing was governed by a set of pre-determined parameters, though allowed space for natural artistic ‘composing’, the attempt to achieve balance.
Rules:
- This drawing will use pencils ranging in softness from 2B to 6B.
- An oval, lemon like shape card stencil will exclusively be used to produce the work.
- The outline of this shape will be drawn around, it may move around fixed points at various arbitrarily chosen positions on the shape, always repeating and accumulating marks.
- The drawing will be worked on for the duration of New Forms by Cathedral Collective group show. Work will stop on the last day possible before the exhibition closing event.
Rules established, feint, hard to photograph pencil lines began to cover the blank expanse. The first hours were about covering as much white as possible (iii). As hours worked increased and layers accumulated, the network of lines became more complex. They came to resemble a dancing mycorrhizal network, tangled neural pathways or hopelessly entwined fishing nets (images iv and v.)
At the end of the show run, the piece was finished/abandoned. Work could have continued for many more hours, until the graphite became a solid layer with no discernible details, but it felt like an appropriate time to stop, call an end 32 hours 30 minutes spent dutifully scraping pencils around a lemon like shape, moving on blu-tak fixed points in varying positions (vi).
Like in previous durational pieces, the act of drawing had become a meditative, self determined performance, a rhythm to find with each visit. I am extremely thankful to everyone at Ards Arts Centre allowing it to happen and for the chance to work at this scale again.
John Macormac 