Postal Drawing

Postal Drawing was developed to address the implications of transporting artefacts to exhibitions that feature physical work in an age of financial crisis. To achieve this a drawing box was constructed out of corex plastic and paper and a drawing ‘shuttle’ added, in action whilst the work was couriered from the site of production to the site of exhibition the particular motions produced the marks that formed the final presentation of the work. The work explores the transformation of actions and movement defined by a specific journey into a visual drawing. The artist is in control of certain aspects such as choice of paper or types of pencils but the outcome is defined by each venues location thus the work captures the unseen phenomena of exhibiting and transferring work from one location to another. The methods are chosen as they allow the concept of movement between venues to become the content of the work, in each case what is displayed is a direct correlation with that venues and the artist’s studio.

‘Postal Drawing’ offers a response to the challenges faced by artists in the age of global financial crisis as it allows the artist to continue to explore the notion of surrogates defined in other works; where the anomalies that result from transforming one material process to another create the conditions of expression within the work. In this case the accepted norm of sending a work for show is subverted by the act of sending being the mode of production, offering the artist the chance to address the research imperatives whilst addressing the challenges of financial limitations post 2008. This response is timely in the early twenty-first century where financial crisis has become the norm (Lerer & McGarrigle 2018) and to maintain international communities artist must seek novel ways to address their concerns in more frugal budget friendly ways.