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DRAWin festival 2018 was an amazing and inspiring event! As an artist, it was wonderful to be around other people thinking about and practicing Drawing Performance. In one day, I went from feeling alone to being part of an international community. It was wonderful to see the variety and depth of artistic research that is being done in this medium. Drawing performance is clearly a growing field of study and needs continued support.

Drawing performance has become a central area of visual research in the twenty-first century. I think this is first a return to drawing as an essential aspect of visual art. Many critics and historians have noted the importance of drawing in contemporary art practices. I think it is also a desire from audiences for authentic and live experiences. Digital media and the proliferation of popular culture have caused cultural fatigue. Audiences and viewers are seeking out cultural events that encourage interaction and direct human-to-human contact.

The opportunities for networking and workshops at DRAWin fesival where transformative for me. Artist Molly Macleod and I had practical and theoretical discussion on the role of sound in drawing. Artist Liesje van den Berk and I talked about the potential of audience interaction in drawing based performances. This is not to mention the inspiration I found in seeing a dozen drawing based performances. Draw to Perform is building an international community of artists working in drawing performance. The impacts of DRAWin will go far beyond those 3 days. I will have these connections for the rest of my career. Sidney Pink (Artist, USA) 2018

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Thank you so much for letting me be part of this incredible community! Draw to perform is such an innovative and platform that is reshaping the way we perceive the act of drawing in current time. As an artist and a collaborator, I had the honour and privilege to take part in collaborating with fellow artists during the Draw To Perform Symposium.

It is so inspiring to witness the evolution and evolvement of this community through these drawing performances, to see how the boundaries between various forms of art and mediums become elusive. Artists of all kind express their passion for drawing and mark making, with increased awareness to the tremendous contribution of the medium as a tool to develop our work in any discipline.  It helps the artist to evolve and expand, to loose the boundaries and allow new forms of expressions to rise, and at the same time providing such liberating settings for viewers and audience to take part in these performances.

I really encourage artists and audience to consider joining to this incredible community that has been build with such dedication and love by Ram. I am grateful for the collaboration experience and the new fellow artists I had the pleasure to meet and work together. Nava Waxman (Artist, Canada) 2018

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I just wanted to say how much myself and my daughter enjoyed the series of performances at Fabrica this Saturday. My daughter is a 14-year-old aspiring artist, and was very inspired by the event. She is planning to include a review of the performances as part of her Silver Arts Award. We do not go to that many dance events together, and it was fantastic to see her eyes being opened to the ways physical movement and visual arts can be combined.

I particularly enjoyed the mix of performances, the various ways in which the fantastic space you had was used, and the moments where artists interacted with the audience. It was also great to see families and people of all ages being welcomed to such an event.

I have subscribed to your newsletter and look forward to keeping up to date with any other events, which you have planned. E. K (UK) 2017

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Some experiences stay with you. They push you and you learn. A huge thank you to all involved. You made a difference to me. Meeting Australian artist Jan Rae and being part of Draw to Perform was such a great experience. Nigel Davies (Dancer, UK) 2017

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The Draw to Perform performances inspired our students to explore new areas of mark making within their own work, resulting in exciting and experimental approaches to their studio work. James Olley (Lecturer, Faculty of Art, OCAD U, Canada) 2016

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Thanks to you for such a great event and for letting me to be part of it, it was an honor, it changed OCAD’s mood for those days and it changed our point of view toward drawing and performance, it helped me to see the two as a whole and to see my body as a tool to draw! Ghzaleh Baniahmad (OCAD U student, Canada) 2016

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Draw to Perform’ Workshops and symposium at the Goldsmiths Design Festival last September 2015 was a fantastic success and possibly one of the activities that brought the biggest number of public to the event. Ram showed a great and professional methodology while conducting the drawing performance workshops, especially considering the different ages and backgrounds of the people attending it. The invited artist part of the performances and the symposium also demonstrated an impressive quality of work and public engagement. Definitely Draw to Perform sessions have been amazingly welcome during the festival, also I must mention here that we had a great feedback from the University staff and from the public that attended the performances. We hope to count on Draw to Perform as special invited artists in a near future. Many thanks. Vinny Esteban (Goldsmiths University, UK) 2015

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Thank you for such a great symposium and workshop – I found it so inspiring and empowering. It was really great to take the time to focus on drawing by dissecting it and pulling it apart through the different stages of the workshop and thus realizing the performative aspect. I am deeply appreciative for this opportunity as it opened a few ideas and even resolved a few questions/issues I have been thinking about in my own practice and research. The collaborative aspect was great as it is something I hadn’t really encountered before – I found it liberating! Please do stay in touch – I look forward to following the symposium and the artist’s practices. I would love to attend again in the future! Brooke Carlson (Artist, Australia) 2015

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Thank you for this lovely workshop. I feel that my mind was gradually liberated throughout the three stages of drawing performance practices. I was easily led to a state of meditation with my performance consciousness work with my ten pieces of drawings. (Though not quite grasped the instruction, I lifted my hand, sorry). The second stage of blackening the piece of paper was very soothing as it liberated my childhood aspiration. And the third stage, the collaborative drawing performance, had opened my mind and liberated my spirit more through the play and playfulness with my fellow performers. Thank you so much for this memorable event and I hope the participate in more workshops exploring drawing and performances in the future. Yahuei Anna Yang (Drawing becomes Performance, Workshop) 2015

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I would like to say a biggest thank you for the opportunity! It’s been an amazing weekend of adsorbing and responding to you and everyone involved. I feel very fortunate to had the chance to participate.

The workshop has continue to leave its trace with me. Your work allowed the question to open up the ideas of what is ‘Contemporary’ about the attitudes and process of drawing into something that connects with the current state of being a creator, thinker, maker?

I found it interesting each artist whom presented there performance drawing was not the sole catalyst but a by product of their investigation. I found the delivery of your workshop was very beneficial for the development of personal systems and adopted the energy of Day 2 session from your drawing warm up exercise. You allow me to move, drag my fingers and stretch whilst drawing! Something I have been trying to understand why I don’t and why I need to as well. Pushing the expression with material and mark. Kim Nguyen (Drawing becomes Performance, Workshop) 2015

 

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It was a pleasure to participate in your workshop. You are a very good guide and it was revealing all the information about ourselves that marks without thinking can show. All the physical experience was really interesting as well and confirmed that we are one experience with the mark that we are making, the self disappears to become a big instrument of expression as a direct canal from the heart.

Thank you for teaching these experiences to the world. The only one I remember that did it was Trisha Brown long time ago. Drawing with my feet was one of the best feelings I had. Everybody should do it. And the self has gone, and you are covered in a material, in a colour, and you don’t care, and you feel so satisfied and there is anywhere else you would like to be rather than there. When I left I had the feeling of deep content, and feeling very relaxed. Gianinna Delpino (Drawing becomes Performance, Workshop) 2015

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The workshop was really interesting and inspiring. Ram led the activities, which were clearly structured but also gave us the opportunity to improvise and make our own. Ram promoted discussions during the workshop. It was really interesting to see different people’s views on the activities and approaches to drawing. The final activity was absolutely brilliant as it allowed us to bring all our previous thinking into a performance drawing. Overall I thought it was a brilliant experience and an opportunity to investigate things that had been in my mind for a while in a save environment! Arantxa Emhart (Drawing becomes Performance, Workshop) 2015

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Taking part in the Draw to Perform workshop was a great drawing challenge. It moved my ideas on as to what drawing can be. I feel a lot easier about using drawing in a much more experimental way. Margaret Jennings (Drawing becomes Performance, Workshop) 2015