Meredith Vula is a Professor of Art and Photography at De Montfort University in Leicester, in this Artist Talk she is guiding us around the ‘Drawing Together Exhibition’ currently being held in Martin Hall Gallery at Loughborough University. Along with Meredith Vula, the curator of the exhibition Professor Phillip Vinley walked us through each artwork explaining the significance and meaning of the pieces showcased. Vinley mentioned that this exhibition is about what drawing is, drawing through not only conceptualism and abstraction but also figuration. I’ve included a few of my personal favourites from the exhibition:

Jeanette Harris – Produced a series of work shown in Tate Modern, her work displayed mainly unhappy storylines (such as being dumped), Vinley went onto say how although these were mundane, they also conveyed universal disappointment on paper.

Nigel Hall – A Sculptor and Royal Academician, Hall damaged his hand so couldn’t produce sculptures therefore began reading. He then transposed what he was reading into something graphic. Using graphite paper under the page he was reading, he drew from the first letter to the last, creating linear shapes with a biro that runs out of ink.

John Aktin – Another sculptor who produced a drawing of a major sculpture he produced in Shanghai called ‘Twister’. One of the only pieces in the exhibition produced on a dark canvas background, Vinley states how this is made to look lighter in the catalogue.

Lala Meredith Vula also displayed her sketchbook on location with Analogue film you can preview, so she drew what she thought she had taken photos of. Her sketchbook was from 1999 when she went in with NATO groups whilst working for the British Red Cross. These included ruined landscapes, rubbish, soldiers’ graffiti but primarily burnt out objects and places such as school buildings, tractors, tanks but all with a ‘window into nature’.

One image I loved were the sketches of geese coming back from a bombed-out place to their previous farm, Vula states how they looked like angels. I’ve included images of the reality versus photography.

Towards the end of the talk, there was a snippet of video featuring Richard Deacon describing his drawings and his thoughts about drawing in general. He went on to talk about his wall, which has lights going across it, use light as a record, evidence on the screen. Not only are these ‘visually interesting’ but also ‘philosophically deep’. His specific work uses a flat surface that has various shapes sliding across it so you have virtual depth between the shapes. Drawing is memory, quite mechanical and rigorous therefore you must remember where to move the grid across. I have included a couple of the images from the talk of Deacons work showing its depth and intricacy.