“The gathering of opposites into a vertiginously ordered embrace obliterates not only these oppositions, but the epistemological and ontological grounds for their existence as such.”
The two works that constitute this exhibition were completed consecutively in the spring of this year. The larger work marks a return to pure gesture, a strategy which for me has been on hold since 2013.
Since then, my interest has been in making drawings that pursue what I have described as a “diagrammatic” formal inquiry (a series of which the smaller of the two drawings is a part), wherein line and field become conflated, alongside the ostensible (and ostensibly false) oppositions between surface and depth, presence and absence, singularity and infinity.
Why then, given the conjecture that such oppositions are spurious, is polarity written into the very title of this exhibition? In speaking with Janice about which works to show in this space, I had mentioned that I felt the gestural work represented a process that was much more firmly grounded in pure intuition, insofar as each mark is made instinctively, with no plan, no foresight, no system. This, in opposition to the diagrammatic work(s) that are executed only after many smaller-scale studies are first completed and scrutinized, and that ultimately require an exacting and decisive treatment. Janice suggested that this might, in fact, require two ways into intuition.
Perrin Grauer is a Vancouver-based artist and writer. He holds a BA in Literature and Eastern Religion, and a BFA in Studio Arts, both from UBC. His practice focuses on drawing as a fundamental epistemological unit, and his work is a document of his inquiry into the expressive possibilities of the mark, in its simplest form.
We would like to acknowledge that this show is part of of our residency at Centre A. Thank you for the generous support this year. This will be our last show to be featured in the back space so be sure to come and check it out!
“The gathering of opposites into a vertiginously ordered embrace obliterates not only these oppositions, but the epistemological and ontological grounds for their existence as such.”
The two works that constitute this exhibition were completed consecutively in the spring of this year. The larger work marks a return to pure gesture, a strategy which for me has been on hold since 2013.
Since then, my interest has been in making drawings that pursue what I have described as a “diagrammatic” formal inquiry (a series of which the smaller of the two drawings is a part), wherein line and field become conflated, alongside the ostensible (and ostensibly false) oppositions between surface and depth, presence and absence, singularity and infinity.
Why then, given the conjecture that such oppositions are spurious, is polarity written into the very title of this exhibition? In speaking with Janice about which works to show in this space, I had mentioned that I felt the gestural work represented a process that was much more firmly grounded in pure intuition, insofar as each mark is made instinctively, with no plan, no foresight, no system. This, in opposition to the diagrammatic work(s) that are executed only after many smaller-scale studies are first completed and scrutinized, and that ultimately require an exacting and decisive treatment. Janice suggested that this might, in fact, require two ways into intuition.
Perrin Grauer is a Vancouver-based artist and writer. He holds a BA in Literature and Eastern Religion, and a BFA in Studio Arts, both from UBC. His practice focuses on drawing as a fundamental epistemological unit, and his work is a document of his inquiry into the expressive possibilities of the mark, in its simplest form.
We would like to acknowledge that this show is part of of our residency at Centre A. Thank you for the generous support this year. This will be our last show to be featured in the back space so be sure to come and check it out!