Work With Me An Interactive Drawing Project July 11 – 22, 2016 23 Essex Street, Room H201

July 7, 2016

Work With Me: An Interactive Drawing Project
July 11 – 22, 2016, 23 Essex Street, Room H201

“Work With Me” features three New England artists each invited to create a site-specific work that provokes collaboration echoing a call and response. In music, a “call and response” is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. The art works on view are ongoing, in process. Visitors are invited to respond to the artists’ mark making either within the piece itself (Forrester) or on the wall adjacent to the artist’s drawings (Smith and Townsend).

Marlon Forrester’s “Center Court: Exploring Sacred Geometry Through Line” is a conceptual artwork that “plays” off of the geometry found on a basketball court. Forrester begins the drawing by creating initial paths and lines to assign boundaries or “rules” to the wall using tape, vinyl, and markers. Visitors of the gallery are then invited to use the same materials to contribute their own lines in response to the initial paths created by Forrester. Collectively, the marks “work together” to explore ideas around space, place, ritual, competition, winning, and losing in hopes of re-imaging how we interact with one another through play.

Kevin Townsend is obsessed with time both in its accumulation within us, and the way ways in which the tidal gravity of a given moment can, “warp the experience of its passage.” Through his performative drawings he explores time, space, and duration. In graphite, Townsend will draw overnight across a twenty-six foot wall in the gallery. After twelve hours, the gallery will re-open the following morning at 8:30am, allowing viewers to see his final marks against the wall. Students are invited to then draw, also in graphite, along an adjacent wall of the gallery in response to Townsend’s marks. Collectively, both walls will contain temporal drawings that offer an experiential connection between both parties’ recorded actions.

Sarah Smith was inspired by prolific artists and friends that said they had to draw every day, prompting her to draw more. “One Drawing a Day” is a multi-year drawing project that has evolved into daily source of encouragement and incentive to, “keep going” she says.On view in the gallery, arranged in a grid-like composition like that of an Instagram or Tumblr feed, is a selection of 184 drawings from “One Drawing a Day.” The installation of the work references the artist’s daily updates on her social media page, where she posts daily additions on: olfactorypress.tumblr.com. Her drawings deliver a dark sense of humor and are stylistically diverse. Visitors are invited to take a piece of paper and/or bring in their own of a similar size and contribute their daily drawings to the wall adjacent to the wall featuring Smith’s drawings.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Reception and Artist Talk with Kevin Townsend
Wednesday, July 13, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Talk begins at 5:30pm)

Reception and Artist Talk with Sarah Smith
Thursday, July 15, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Talk begins at 5:30pm)

Reception and Artist Talk with Marlon Forrester
Monday, July 18, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Talk begins at 5:30pm)

All receptions will be held in Montserrat Gallery, 23 Essex St. Beverly, MA 01915