robbiekarmel

Studio-apparatus-workshop-furniture

Posted in Drawing, woodwork by robbiekarmel on November 22, 2016

Since my confirmation a few weeks ago I have been playing around in the studio and workshop. The work has continued to focus on the phenomenological material intersections between myself, the workshop-studio, tools and materials, and the expanded environment.

These two drawings are full body scale mappings of my body and the studio-setup of drawings surfaces and studio-furniture. They serve as records of the interactions between the contributing elements as they facilitate and interrupt my actions of intentionally mapping out the perceptual experience of sitting, drawing, and being.

1

4

2

3

img_0128

By drawing upside down I am playing with interrupting the conventional ergonomics of drawing, an element that is so familiar to drawing that it recedes into the background and is rarely considered as an active element of process. In these drawings I hope to bring environmental factors like gravity, the body interrupting itself, and the relative position of the drawing surface back to the foreground, so that they become active elements that contribute to the activity of drawing. As I engage with and become familiar with these processes and assess the influence they have on the emergent drawings I begin to accomodate or acclimatise to their influence. This circular and recursive quality makes it difficult to assess such elements in their fresh uninterrupted and unassisted  state— as the process of their discovery reveals the properties that may prove interesting to assess as accessed through limited perceptual experience— any artificial limitations of perception (such as blindfolds) are immediately negated as soon as the manifest drawing is assessed.  Furthermore, the familiarity with how intentional actions create image-lines will forever influence how intentional lines are made in the future.

An example:  I have attempted to draw my head as projected onto a surface behind me before, I know that if I move the drawing stick ‘like-so’ recognisable marks will be laid down. I no longer need to assess and  re-assess the marks as compared to the source sensation to confirm their representational accuracy or capacity, as my familiarity with depicting noses and nostrils etc gives me the confidence to lay down the marks without second guessing their accuracy. It is worth noting here that I spend a lot of time drawing my nose, nostrils, and inner nose-throat-sinus-cavity as I experience them from sensations of proprioception, locatable internal itchiness, tongue probing and so on. I find that there is such a concentration of sensation in my head, sinus, hands, feet, and genitals that I amplify the representational gestures that record the experience of embodied being, the record becomes a homunculus of perceptual experience.


These drawing below are a smaller scale, each drawing is on an A2 sheet of paper. I have been experimenting with proprioceptive drawing from external viewpoints, imagined or simulated body positions, and projecting myself into positional relationships with objects. The first two drawings are done while sitting at my desk with the drawing pad in my lap, a position I spend a lot of time in, I find that if I don’t make a conscious effort to select an external viewpoint I project my body onto the paper through a trajectory in line with my head, however there seems to be no ‘front’ or ‘back’ to the manifest representation, in being flattened it takes a form that can be read as concave or convex.

5

6

 


 

These drawings where done before the stool was complete, I had climbed on the frame but not mounted it or perched on it.

As I was drawing these I was looking at the incomplete stool with the seat slab balanced on the frame. I imagined/projected myself into the position as influenced by my attempts to climb the frame before the seat was attached.

10

11

This drawing is a sketch of a planned piece of studio furniture, a small box on legs. I intend to to use the box in a similar manner to the other pieces of studio furniture, allowing the difficulty of balancing on the tiny object to impact the process of drawing.

9

8

7


 

I have also just finished this piece of studio furniture, an impractically high surface to sit on. I will be starting a drawing using this stool soon, the height will again disrupt the comfortable ergonomics of drawing.

 

14

15

16

17


 

12

13


 

18

 

These are my first attempts at carving alaia surfboards, I am not a strong surfer and haven’t done it for a few years, but I was recently introduced to the work of Tom Wegener (http://www.tomwegenersurfboards.com/about-tom-0) and got really excited about shaping a simple surfboard from a piece of wood. I’ll have a chance to try them out in a few weeks, we’ll see how it goes!

Life Drawing

Posted in Drawing, Drawing Experiments, life drawing by robbiekarmel on May 14, 2016

These are a series of proprioceptive life drawings, while wearing a blindfold I hold a pose and map out my body. I draw following a similar format to conventional life drawing sessions, the poses are between 3 and 5 minutes long.

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17


Drawings from recent life drawing sessions.

1

 

4

8

9

5

3

7

6

 

Back To The Drawing Board

Posted in Drawing by robbiekarmel on March 14, 2016

It’s been about a year since I last posted here, apologies for the extended hiatus! I have recently started my PhD research, which focuses on concepts of tool use and the expanded body, particularly in relation to drawing and making.  There will definitely be more frequent posts for the foreseeable future.

In extending my drawing practice to include three-dimensional objects I have begun to experiment with carving. Below is one of my first forays into the media, as I am doing everything by hand it is a time consuming process, stay tuned for updated progress shots.

9

10

^the work is embedded in my drawing practice, rather than working from planned drawings I started by drawing blind proprioceptive self portraits on the blank torso and will continue to mark out the work utilising similar experimental drawing methods.

 

___

 

I am also continuing my on going enquiries into observational and representational drawing. The busts that I have been producing provide ambiguous forms to hang drawings on.

 

6

 

5

2

 

1

__

I have also been maintaining ongoing life drawing sessions to maintain, expand, and experiment with my technical skills.

3

 

4

 

8

 

7

The Drawing of Bodies and Things — Exhibition

Posted in Drawing, Exhibitions, Participatory Drawing, woodwork by robbiekarmel on November 3, 2014

The Drawing of Bodies and Things opened last week, the show went really well, I’ve presented several talks to visitors and undergraduate groups and everyone has been very receptive and engaged in great conversations about drawing.

Several people joined me in performative participatory drawings on the opening night, a big thanks to Kyla Cassells, Richard Carroll, and Eliza Vince.

A big thanks to everyone who came to the opening and who has visited the show, the exhibition will be up until the 8th of November, Wednesday til Saturday at Kudos Gallery, Paddington.

———

1

2

3

4

5

6

8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

18

19

20

21

Tagged with:

This is Not Art 2014 (and some serious woodworking)

Posted in Drawing, Exhibitions, woodwork by robbiekarmel on October 7, 2014

space2

I have just got back from presenting my work at the Crack Theatre Festival as a part of This is Not Art Festival in Newcastle. I spent 3 days in a space drawing, both solo and doing participatory drawing exercises with people, which was fantastic.

The Crack Theatre festival were fantastic hosts, and put on a fantastic festival.  The festival facilitated some great cross-disciplinary discussion and exposure, which for a visual artist (or conceptual art maker) with a largely solo and solitary practice can be a bit lacking normally.

It was a great space and an awesome opportunity and I’m hoping to head back next year to do something new and exciting that progresses on from these experiments and hopefully pushes the collaborative participatory experience further.

space1space35

^(My catalog arrived and it’s great! I’ll do a whole post on this soon! and look into setting up an online shop and maybe a PDF download)

19chair

^This is the chair I made to facilitate drawing exercises that involve drawing on the back of or behind a mirror.

finn2

^Finn O’Branagdin demonstrating how to use the chair, for the participatory drawings I trace on the persons face and ask them to make marks in direct response to the tactile and visual sensations.

finn    18andrewstyan

^Andrew Styan

17deepash 16cloe 15 hannah 15 alex litherland 14shane 13 ane

^Jane Walter

12frank 10 9 6yen2120

These last two drawings were done as solo exercises, I lay down next to the piece of paper with my eyes shut and attempt to map out a schema of my body relying on my proprioceptive awareness. I am particularly interested in our embodied ability to internally visualize what our bodies may look like from an external viewpoint.

this is a process that is heavily influenced by my knowledge of drawing, established methods I have of representation, and my expectations or internally simulated expectations of what the marks I am making will look like.

On a less theoretical note— I’ve recently become incredibly excited about wood working with hand tools. Woodworking and my drawing/fine art practice merged for the first time in the drawing chair I made:

342   

(these little guys were really into my chair) ^

As well as the chair I’ve been going through a series projects of varying difficulty in order to develop hand working skills, I put together this workbench with my housemate Shane Wiechnik.

benchbench21wood1

tblr 3

^I also made this Burr Puzzle for my cousin August’s 5th birthday present (he didn’t quite appreciate it but I hope he grows into it)

tblr1

^This was my bedroom as I was frantically trying to get the chair done in time for TINA (which was a bit of mistake, I now know that woodworking is a thing you shouldn’t ever rush). You can also see my tool there tote mid-process:

tblr2

Participatory Drawing in Melbourne

Posted in Drawing, Participatory Drawing by robbiekarmel on May 7, 2014

Over the weekend I travelled down to Melbourne to present my work at N/A Studios. I did a series of participatory drawing exercises with people, presenting some methods I’d used previously as well as experimenting with some new configurations.

I’ll be presenting the project again in Canberra in a few weeks, in Newcastle early October, and at my graduate exhibition in Sydney late October.

Thanks to everyone who came along and had a go! and a massive thanks to Sarah Kaur, George Rose, and NA Studios for inviting me down and hosting me, it was a fantastic weekend!

(sorry about the quality of the photos of the drawing, didn’t have ideal lighting conditions…)

jess and kat

Drawing with Jess Kelly and Kat Clark

jess and kat2

Drawing with Jess Kelly and Kat Clark

kyliemaybe

 

 

I’m afraid I can’t remember who these last two photos are of! if anyone can help me out that would be great! will have to keep better notes in the future…

drawing

 

 

Drawing with Sarah Salazar 

chris ryan

firthcallizo

firthcallizo2

Drawing with Sarah Katherine Firth and Marta Callizo

firthcallizo3

firthcallizo4

jk

kyliebollen

Drawing with Kylie Bollen

nessroque

Drawing with Ness Roque

saraksalazar

Drawing with Sarah Salizar

self

Self Portrait with Sarah Kaur

sophielamond

troycampbell

You Are Here Paricipatory Drawings

Posted in Drawing, Participatory Drawing by robbiekarmel on March 24, 2014

Over the last two weekends I have been drawing in Canberra as a part of the You Are Here festival, I’ve built a table to facilitate my drawing experiments and have been working with people to make drawings.

A very special thanks you the You Are Here folks for having me, and to everyone that participated in the work.

I’ll be continuing to work with people and will be looking for people to draw with in Canberra and Sydney over the coming months.

table1

Emma1

sarah1

Louie1

Dani Cabs

Claire Granata

david finnigan

Emma Beer

Erica Hurrell

Erin Leggat

george rose1

kellybeneforti

Louie

Lucy Nelson

Mark Wilson

Milly Cooper

Nelson Cabrera

Nick Atkins

Paul Kelloway

Reuben Ingall

Robbie Karmel

Rory Stenning

sarah2

thomas day

tom swann

Return

Posted in Drawing by robbiekarmel on February 14, 2014

Sorry I haven’t been updating recently, it got away from me while I was overseas. As part of my field I had an amazing time, I visited London, Leeds, Glasgow, Oxford, Copenhagen, Berlin, the Venice Biennale, and Shanghai. I presented my research and work at the International Drawing Research Initiative conference at Dong Hua University which was a fantastic experience, the work was very well received and generated some very interesting discussion of drawing processes.

Here are a few of the drawings I did while traveling as well as a couple that I’ve done since getting back to Australia.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

experiments and departure

Posted in Drawing, travel by robbiekarmel on September 16, 2013

Tomorrow I leave for the U.K and Europe to do work and research as a part of my masters project. I’m also going to be coming back via Shanghai to attend the International Drawing Research Initiative conference, I’m incredibly excited about the trip and will be updating this blog regularly with new work and my adventures overseas.

_________

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Statuette

Posted in Drawing by robbiekarmel on August 26, 2013

dog1

dog2

dog3

dog4

dog5

dog6