pencil
paper
each: 6″ x 9″
the surface shifts drawings were created while driving in my car on the highway. i attached a board to my steering wheel with bungie cords, and was able to slip a piece of paper between the board and the cords so that it was held against the steering wheel. i held a pencil in my right hand and rested it between the paper and my body. i wanted to create a drawing through the combination of bumps in the road surface and turns of the steering wheel – a kind of graphic map of the movements of my vehicle along a particular area of road; and a different kind of topographical notation, or recording process.
the drawings were done with different pencils, and the smudges and fingerprints occurred while trying to maneuver the paper and “drawing station” while driving on the highway at roughly 80 mph.
for a long time i have been interested in various ways of generating drawings while doing something else. since i also work with sound, i am interested in the various kinds of recording process’s one can use to document a moment, a location, a series of movements, etc. certainly william anastasi’s subways drawings and tom marioni’s work were an influence here.
the car drawings began a few years ago, when i decided to drive to sun valley idaho for an exhibition instead of take a plane. i did a series of drawings while watching the road and not the paper – just letting my free hand wander along the paper, creating documents of 15 – 20 minute bursts of deep mental wandering amongst hours of physical wandering along a highway. i began to think about ways in which the car could influence of the final works in a more detemined and formal way – these drawings are the result of that.