mark making – PSA ( power station of Art, venue for the Shanghai biennale)

I’m not sure where and how things formulate but at least i can write moments where i discovered something which could be similar to making that mark on the wall.

it was when i entered the parks in Shanghai, running in the mall to find dairy queen to buy the blizzard which i had in 1987 in USA. Its moment when i am confronted with empty wide roads, a man without a T shirt, buying M and M’s, stepping into a pastry shop, asking how to exit the mall and the woman looks away because i spoke in english. Endless number of moments.

All of this would play a role in making the mark on the wall or even having an interest to make that mark.

For such moments there are no boundaries of time, countries, places. They are moments which frame a new direction. I can not compare with drawing a line on a paper to represent something or present an expression but they are similar marks which are left because how they impact you. Something as simple as an entrance to the park, or a tree or just how things are.

if i think about the marks made inside the building, it is like glue mark on a trail. So the trail is far longer, the journey is far wider then the single mark. But its just a moment where something is decided to become visible.

Drawing in this sense is absent – present. It may not be expressed but it is in existence at all times. If i speak further, the marks made are not the complete aspect of the drawing and visibility of a mark may not constitute the whole of a drawing. So i lose out on how to define drawing.

like the Exhibition opening does not say anything about the mark. it is just a moment of allowing someone to come in and see. Nor is it my desire for them to see the mark. For me what works is to pick up these clues and find the object / moment where the original inspiration happened. this seems complex but is possible. Like a simple drawing of the fire hydrant. This is something new for me that i saw in China

 

So since it is in the city, i have  given a clue to go back to the object. I also used the common bike lock found everywhere in the city.

I think each mark was hinting at something else. Does this mean drawing is transferable. Is it something which can create an infinite thought which is generated through the mark?

If this is so, then this imagined mark, seen as an equation could lead to further equations?

for example, an image where i end up asking a question that “I will love this way” is towards the edge of two ply-boards joining. The question i asked my self was why would i love this way and if the equation is to be repeated to get to a similar result. I have to find that space where i again reach to the point of – “I will love this way”. If this is not possible then the factor of time comes in. If it is replicated, then the formula could be extended. But it poses a question of two and one. If a pulsar eventually bursts after a period of time, the other pulsar is also calculated with the same formula. But here how do you calculate the mark and its intensity, value, meaning and the trace?

So does this mean, that by not having an ability to repeat itself, the body and the mind are only mediators. because there is no control over what is being anticipated, what happens in the moment, its nature that it can not be erased and it can not be repeated.

it is not a programming function, it is not in a loop, nor is it a code which can be altered to give different results. It is a culmination of something for that moment only and one can only exercise it with no control over the results. So drawing is unpredictable or has some degree of uncertainty.

So is it best to say, that perturbation theory of not having an exact answer but something close to the right answer is the absolute answer? How is it natural like a growth of a plant because there is no identity as the mark only reveal something to the drawer, to go on making another mark or even understanding what it means to be in a certain space and time. Beyond that there isn’t much.

I had formulated a thought that i am interested in the objects and things that i see and i will ask people in shanghai who visit my exhibition that i am using the day to day objects that you see as a series of questions to further create more questions since the exhibition was about “Why not ask again” but i could hold on to this only to a very small percentage as a thought only. Nothing works in the moment of making the mark. It is a series of moments which are in that moment and something drives you to see something and play with that thought.

like i saw  crack in someones work and light pouring out and i rushed to my spot to make a spot that “is it here?” or is it here, or here and i ran into the wall space like a physical run in landscape with a series of marks.

Is this run, a fall into something, or is it a way to play with drawing?