Project News: Trace Elements - Press Release

Trace Elements

TBC Artists' Collective comprises four London-based artists – Beverley Bennett, Charley Peters, Laura Davidson and Paul Mendez – who work collectively to generate projects with a focus on drawing and its scope within contemporary art practice.

Established in 2009, their recent first show Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing considered the presence of drawing beyond its traditional parameters and within such disciplines as writing, film, sculpture, painting and embroidery. Delineation began a series of projects that will engage the collective with other artists, writers and curators, who are invited to participate based on their individual perspectives on drawing.

Always keen to challenge creative identities and generate new ideas, the 12-Pages Online Project Space enables members and associates to regularly produce new work by means of short deadlines and notional themes, often instigating fresh lines of inquiry. 12-Pages Magazine seeks to document each key stage in the development of these and other of the collective’s investigations.

The collective’s latest exhibition project Trace Elements will continue to develop the initial themes first outlined in Delineation, exploring drawing through erasure, repetition, accumulation, trace, memory and the interruption of surfaces. 

Walk On By

A TBC banner stands proudly before the caryatids of The Parish of St. Pancras

A year in planning and it was over a week of chills, breakdowns, walk-outs and artists' talks.

Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing, the Collective's first show, was an exploration of contemporary drawing practice and the presence of drawing within different art forms, from video to embroidery to sculpture. Its venue was The Crypt, a cold, damp, earthy space that wouldn't at first - or indeed upon reflection - seem to lend itself to the displaying of works on paper, which made up the bulk of the show. Indeed, after only five days in the space, some of the artists involved observed slight decay in the pristine quality of their works, all of which were framed.

This was the only negative; the show was well received; it was generally accepted that TBC Artists' Collective had indeed subjected contemporary drawing practice to a rigorous interrogation, and  comments from the public largely expressed pleasure at the standard of work on show. My personal experience, however, was mixed.


For the rest of of this article, visit The Stillborn Jeune Homme.

Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing Closes

Selected works from Delineation

After a successful five-day run, Delineation closed its doors to the public today. The Delineation project however, continues to develop. A post-exhibition catalogue, featuring critical responses to the exhibition and essays exploring contemporary drawing practices, will be edited by TBC over the forthcoming months.

Anyone interested in being kept up-to-date with the progress of this and other TBC projects should join the TBC mailing list by emailing with the subject heading 'Mailing List' to: info@tbcartistscollective.org.

Jim Mooney - Critical Responses to Delineation

Dr Jim Mooney in conversation with members of TBC Artists' Collective

Today TBC was joined in The Crypt Gallery by Dr Jim Mooney, Reader in the Theory and Practice of Fine Art at Middlesex University, who led a discussion based on his responses to the exhibition Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing. During the afternoon Jim shared his critical observations of the curatorial policy of the show and led the artists through the gallery in order to give a close reading of each work and identify underlying shared concerns among the exhibiting artists.

TBC would like to extend their thanks to Jim for his insightful and generous contribution to the exhibition programme. A transcript of the discussion will constitute part of the catalogue for Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing, which TBC will be writing over the forthcoming months. This publication will also contain a transcript of yesterday's panel discussion led by artist John Timberlake and featuring TBC members Beverley Bennett, Charley Peters, Laura Davidson and Paul Mendez, as well as a collection of critical essays addressing current concerns in artists' drawing practices.

Delineation Workshops

Drawing created in one of the Delineation workshops led by TBC Artists' Collective.

Over the last two months TBC Artists' Collective have been working with volunteers from the charity House of St Barnabus-in-Soho to run drawing workshops. Delineation artists Paul Mendez, Liz Oniri and Alex McIntyre have worked closely with a group of volunteers - all of which have experiences of homelessness - to create a drawing that was displayed as part of the exhibition at the Crypt Gallery.

Delineation: Three Days Left

There are three days of Delineation left, and on Saturday 31st October artist John Timberlake will lead a panel discussion about the nature of drawing amongst TBC members. The event is free and begins at 2pm in The Crypt Gallery, NW1 2BA.

Installation: Delineation, Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing

Installation is currently underway for the new TBC exhibition Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing. The group are spending two days transforming the subterranean environment of the Crypt Gallery, NW1, into an exhibition of critical drawing practices, which reflects the breadth of 'drawing' within the working processes of individual group members and across collaborative projects amongst TBC members. Each TBC member will also contribute works to the 'Drawing Dialogues Corridor', an area of the exhibition that shows an interrogatory or diagnostic approach to drawing.

Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing is open Wednesday 27th-Sunday 31st October, 10am-6pm. The Private View is Wednesday 27th October, 6-9pm. An artists' talk takes place on Saturday 30th October at 2pm led by artist John Timberlake and involving several TBC artists.

Studio Views: Beverley Bennett

by filmmaker Timothy Knights


The film documents Bennett in her studio in London creating work for Scratch Black Light. The film accompanies her solo exhibition entitled 'Process' currently showing at Arena Gallery, Liverpool as part of this year Biennal programme.

Delineation Installation Preparation: Charley Peters

Above: Artist's impression of the installation of Viral II in the Crypt Gallery, London.

TBC artist Charley Peters will be exhibiting two works from her new Viral series of drawings at Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing in October 2010. In addition to Viral, Peters will also show a collection of diagnostic works that explore the role of drawing in her practice in the Drawing Dialogues area on the exhibition. This important part of the Delineation exhibition will interrogate how TBC artists use drawing processes in preparatory, research and collaborative works.

For more information about the Viral series and Peters' current work see: charleypeters.blogspot.com

Work In Progress: Beverley Bennett

Introducing light to Scratch Black installation. For more information visit nowthaticanaffordlaughter.blogspot.com

Work In Progress: Beverley Bennett

 

For more information visit nowthaticanaffordlaughter.blogspot.com

12-Pages Issue 1

Bare Bones by Elizabeth Oniri

12-Pages is a paper gallery platform for TBC Artists' Collective, a multi-disciplinary group and space for debate and dialogue on art theory and practice.

This first issue compiles works by members of the group, produced within a twelve-minute timeframe. Few other constraints were placed upon the participants, therefore the works range from twelve-minute sketches to pieces of writing edited within twelve minutes, adapting William Burroughs' 'cut-up' technique.

The first issue of 12-Pages is launched in unison with the first TBC Artists' Collective group show. Entitled Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing, it is an exploration of the presence of drawing within various other art practices, including video, performance, documentary and sculpture, and will be presented at London's Crypt Gallery from 27 October - 1 November 2010. 

TBC on YouTube

TBC TV is now live on YouTube. The first TBC film, TBC Studio Views: Charley Peters, is a short document of TBC member Charley Peters producing a piece from her Viral Series of drawings, which will be showcased at Delineation in October.

There will be many more TBC films to follow so stay tuned...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGBA0zNE0dw

Delineation: Words in Progress

When I was a child I was scared of washing machines. I couldn't walk past one for fear that I would be sucked in by it. My paternal grandmother's house was the worst, because the living room could only be accessed via the small kitchen, in which there was a narrow gap between the dining table and the washing machine. One day, when I was four, I arrived there with my dad, and the washing machine was on spin. I was holding his hand, and as he proceeded through the kitchen, I froze and dug my heels into the floor. He laughed and made fun of me out of embarrassment, and took my hand. I screamed. I would not walk past that washing machine. He picked me up and put me high on his shoulder, and took me through to the living room. I subsequently rationalised the fact that if the washing machine wasn't able to swallow my six-foot-tall father, and I was on his shoulder, then I was safe.


I'm at a time when I'm not able to write much creatively. I don't know why, and I shouldn't just accept it, but even after ten years of experimenting as a self-identified writer, fear of a blank page still seizes me in that same way. I don't know what I am going to say, or how it will come out, if indeed anything will come out at all. The longer I leave it, the more difficult it gets. Starting on a blank page, in the case of writing or drawing, is like facing a black hole, or, for a four-year-old with a spectacular imagination who perhaps hasn't watched enough TV, a banal household appliance. To use an unavoidable chiché (I can't be arsed to try to come up with anything more eloquent), it is a step into the unknown. Only when you pick up the pen, pencil or pastel, or strike the keys on the laptop, will you write or draw.


Sometimes, though, you need a pick-up. Sometimes you need an authority figure to rationalise your delusions and demonstrate that everything will be okay, someone who will click their fingers metaphorically and bring you back to reality. The washing machine is not a black hole that will spin out of control and swallow up the world within its wet cotton folds. The blank page is not going to jump up in your face and suffocate you. 


From an irrational fear, washing machines soon became an obsession. I was the weird six-year old actually sitting on the kitchen floor amongst a five-person family's piles of dirty laundry, watching the drum go round one way a few revolutions and back round the other, sounding like a generator in a sci-fi film, the warm water lapping up against the concave window.  I sat smelling the smells of the kitchen, dominated by the unreachable dirt between the washing machine and the kitchen carcass, and the congealed fat in the fryer. The drum of the washing machine reminded me of my other obsession - cars. I would be pressed up against the rear window, watching faster cars swoosh past my dad's beige Cortina. I loved wet roads, when the cars overtaking us looked particularly dynamic, their wheels gliding through planes of water, spraying it up like a thumb over a hosepipe. Like the drum of a washing machine on spin.

Work In Progress: Beverley Bennett

Prep work for the new Scratch Black Installation for Delineation.

For more info on Beverley Bennett, TBC artist visit nowthaticanaffordlaughter.blogspot.com

Studio Views: Charley Peters

Excerpt from a short film documenting the production of Viral II, a new piece of work by TBC artist Charley Peters for the collective's forthcoming exhibition Delineation.

More at charleypeters.blogspot.com

Work in Progress: Laura Davidson

Photo research for work that will be exhibited in Delineation.

More work can viewed on lauraelizabethdavidson.com

Work in Progress: Anatomy of a Projection

TBC artist Charley Peters will preview works from her Viral series of drawings at Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing.Viral I (left) and Viral II (right) suggest the ways in which both analogue and digital technologies interrupt image data, through an exploration of the relationship between mechanically produced and hand rendered marks.

For more information visit: charleypeters.blogspot.com

Delineation: Free Artists' Talk

We can now confirm that there will be a free artists' talk as part of the supporting programme for Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing. It will be led by artist John Timberlake, who will discuss the key considerations of the exhibition in relation to current drawing practice in contemporary art. A number of the exhibiting artists will be present to take questions from the audience.

Timberlake is an artist whose practice embraces drawing, painting and photography, and whose work is in a number of public and private collections in Europe and the US. He is Programme Leader in BA Fine Art, Middlesex University.

The talk will take place on Saturday 30 October, 2 - 3 pm, in The Crypt Gallery NW1 2BA. Places are free but booking is advised. To reserve a place email TBC with the subject heading ‘TALK’ and your name to: info@tbcartistscollective.org

In Progress: Elizabeth Oniri

Working toward the Delineation exhibition, Texture and Line