Drawing from photographic sources of course references the history of painting from photographs, over which Gerhard Richter casts a long shadow, given the substantial body of his work devoted to such interests.
This image then - illustrating an article from ‘The Guardian’ of Japan’s attempts to clamp down upon such ‘unacceptable’ habits amongst the country’s many cyclists as riding on footpaths & holding umbrellas, texting, listening to music players, etc, whilst riding - presented itself as suitable for use primarily due to the blurred background which immediately recalled Richter’s familiar, signature technique of raking a blur over numerous of his images. In this readymade state, it was interesting to replicate the blurring & to discover that the doing so required as much concentration & work as would representing a defined & detailed subject, the drawing - again ‘processed’ over a considerable amount of time & numerous sessions - thus contrasting sharply (no pun intended) with the split-second, frozen moment, snapshot nature of the original photograph.
Graphite/30x21cm
Original source: ‘The Guardian’ 01/08
Similarly, a second photographic image of oriental origins & one of quite stunning beauty - this time of a Beijing swimmer captured diving into the freezing Houhai Lake - presented another perfect stilled moment for contemplation &, although the resulting drawing was completed in much less time, again illustrates the temporal & technical difference involved in the production - the ‘work’ of art - of each.
Graphite & putty eraser/21x30cm
Original source: ‘The Times’ 2, 16/01/08
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