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Serial Drawing offers a timely and rigorous exploration of a relatively little-researched art form. Serial drawings - artworks that are presented as singular works but are made up of distributed parts - are studied in fresh, contemporary terms with a novel philosophical approach, emphasizing both the way in which this unique form of visual art exists in the world, and how it is encountered by the beholder.
Inspired by the quadruple framework of Graham Harman's object-oriented ontology, Joe Graham explores a variety of serial drawings according to the idea that, in being serially arrayed, such artworks constitute a rather particular form of art object: one which is both unified yet pluralised, visible yet withdrawn. Examining works by artists such as Alexei Jawlensky, Ellsworth Kelly, Hanne Darboven, Jill Baroff and Stefana McClure, Graham interrogates the manner in which serial drawings are able to be appreciated by the viewer who beholds them in object-oriented terms. This task is carried out by paying attention to the manner in which three tensions - space, time and seriality -emerge for consideration within the beholders performative encounter with the work: an encounter which is 'seen serially', and which the medium of drawing specifically directs their attention
towards.
List of contents
List of Figures
Introduction
1. A History of Definitions
2. An Object-Oriented Approach
3. Serial Drawing
Conclusion: Seeing Serially
About the author
Joe Graham is Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah, UAE
Summary
Serial Drawing offers a timely and rigorous exploration of a relatively little-researched art form. Serial drawings – artworks that are presented as singular works but are made up of distributed parts – are studied in fresh, contemporary terms with a novel philosophical approach, emphasizing both the way in which this unique form of visual art exists in the world, and how it is encountered by the beholder.
Inspired by the quadruple framework of Graham Harman’s object-oriented ontology, Joe Graham explores a variety of serial drawings according to the idea that, in being serially arrayed, such artworks constitute a rather particular form of art object: one which is both unified yet pluralised, visible yet withdrawn. Examining works by artists such as Alexei Jawlensky, Ellsworth Kelly, Hanne Darboven, Jill Baroff and Stefana McClure, Graham interrogates the manner in which serial drawings are able to be appreciated by the viewer who beholds them in object-oriented terms. This task is carried out by paying attention to the manner in which three tensions – space, time and seriality –emerge for consideration within the beholders performative encounter with the work: an encounter which is ‘seen serially’, and which the medium of drawing specifically directs their attention towards.
Foreword
Building on contemporary discussions around art and philosophy, this book offers a fresh exploration of serial drawings and how they function as an art form.
Additional text
Serial art, one may assume, invites little variation in definition, form or theoretical premise. Joe Graham proves differently. After discussing a surprisingly varied range of philosophical definitions of seriality, he establishes grounds for a theoretical position for an embodied mode of serially seeing. As such, (art) objects presenting themselves as serial teach us rather than letting us impose content. This act of seeing privileges an understanding of systems and structures over meaning. Graham’s investigation leads us to understand why Harman’s object-oriented ontology is indispensable as an aesthetic mode for the 21st century, making us appreciate what emerges and simultaneously withdraws when contemplating art. Nothing is better suited to test this mode than drawing, as (to quote the author) it uniquely combines ‘visible material and formal qualities […] with a conceptual underpinning […] inherent to serial structure and order’. To which end Graham modifies Harman’s ontology and reconfigures it, to correspond to the serial character of drawing, challenging the viewer to overcome passive consumption with the embodiment of active perception.
