Sitting/Breathing/Drawing

Join us for the Opening Reception of "Sitting/Breathing/Drawing" from 4pm - 6pm in the Anne Bryan Gallery on Thursday, November 16.  

‘When we are together, there are two of us, and we’re many when we are alone.’ Gilles Deleuze

How can collective mindfulness practices and breathing techniques create new drawing and image conceptualization possibilities? How can artists step outside their singular artistic identities to absorb and enact other forms of mark-making?

The Drawings in this exhibition were generated during three consecutive evening sessions in the fall of 2023 as a part of the Sitting/Making/Being series open to the entire school.  

The sessions began with participants slowing down and centering themselves through synchronized mindful breathing exercises.

From there, participants would volunteer to lead the group by drawing at a table with a down-shooter camera connected to a video projector.

For the first five minutes, a volunteer would draw under the camera on the table, and a synchronous video was projected onto a wall so that everybody in the room could see the drawing in progress. The group would try to follow the painterly performance by mirroring the brush strokes onto their sketch pads.  The group would attempt to avoid overthinking the act of drawing and be in the moment.

After five minutes had passed, the group would continue their drawings without looking at the projection for the remainder of the time. Participants were encouraged to free-associate and draw whatever passed through their minds or emerged from the developing images.

Following another’s mark-making liberated participants from individual decision-making and nudged them out of their habitual and singular approaches toward drawing.

Each grouping of drawings is a remnant of the layering of our collective breath and extended minds.

Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to engage with a drawing-from-video interactive installation.

Facilitators: David Dempewolf & Joy Lai

Participants: Blue Benét (MFA), Victoria Black (MFA), Kay Brinton (BFA), Ian Butz (MFA), Zidong Chen (MFA), Nina Clifton (BFA),  Jeshima DeVine (BFA), Sarah Joy Dunlap (MFA), Kelsey Gavin (MFA), D'Shon McCarthy (MFA), KC Miller (MFA), Christopher Reaves (BFA), CX Timon (Low-Res MFA), Xui Wen Zhen (BFA)