Found 'Drawing'

Now, the presence of found objects haunts TOoT through the provision of subject matter for the processing of drawings - most specifically the ‘roadkill' diptych series of such that have occupied the most significant area of operations over the past year & more - & also photographs, as many a recent example might attest.

However, this particular post marks the occasion of (re)presenting the found source itself (or at least the image of a digital reproduction of), which item came to hand but yesterday during one of the frequent ‘tidies-up’ that form an aspect of the day job duties.


found 'drawing'
printer toner on paper/21x16cm

Departing somewhat from the norm, in an act not of process but, rather, of aesthetic perception & designation, one might consider this as being ‘art’, a ‘readymade’ example of such, in the form of a found ‘drawing’: it is, in fact, the obviously-trimmed & subsequently discarded residue of a larger sheet of paper that has passed through a monochrome photocopier, bearing the ghostly trace of an image of the pin-prick marks upon the inside of the machine’s lid, that part which comes into direct contact with the screen, fixed with toner powder.

Thus it is the proposal today that to anyone sufficiently aesthetically-inclined (the premise upon which TOoT exists, of course) - & quite possibly having passed through a process of art education – the potential exists to view such a ‘mere’ by-product & the mark-making thereupon (or therein) as a drawing (as both object & process, indeed), in, stylistically, something of a minimalist idiom – measured, cool, subtle, yet possessed of a quiet, compelling intensity all the same, classically modernist one might even say, not least in the manner in which the regular pattern of the marks implies the presence of a grid without actually describing such explicitly (in fact, a grid could be imaginatively constructed by joining-the-dots horizontally & vertically).

Trouble is, even when considered & designated as such, which way up & around is the ‘drawing’ meant to be viewed, for the most appropriate & profound aesthetic appreciation?
In ‘portrait’ fashion as initially presented? Or otherwise ‘landscape’...


Or flipped on either vertical or horizontal axes...



Or perhaps this very ambiguity, this versatility, these complications, this further ‘leaving open to interpretation’, are the clearest indications of all of the object’s status as ‘art’...

For another particularly well-presented & thought-provoking example of 'art' as found amongst the duties of the day job, please refer to this entry in Jazz Green's ever-excellent artist's journal (& Jazz's website as a whole for much intriguing & aesthetically-engaging 'found art' - 'paintings', 'drawings' & more)