David Connearn

David Connearn uses repetition in the huge drawings he is best known for. 'Drawnonward' (2001) ink on paper uses repeating lines. When looking at this work I just see an obsession with repeating lines pattern. This is one of the reasons why I like repetition because of the obsession an artist has in their work like David Connearn has. the bigger the mass the more the impact it has with repeating the line this is what is happening in David Connearn's work. The paper has a line repeated in black ink with the trend of following where the last line has been to create this artwork.

David Connearn's work is rooted in a reductive drawing approach in which he starts drawing a freehand horizontal line. Below that he draws a second line, trying to exactly match the first line. He then repeats this process to a determined size. The resultant works have a variety of visual echoes: rock strata, aerials views of the ocean or the close weave of cloth. Yet the work is resolutely 'about' nothing; it does not seek to represent anything but its own making. The fastidious line making is a material artefact of the time, conditions and temperament, which brought it into being.

This lack of meaning and painstaking process creates amazing pieces of art. Process art is an artistic movement where the end product of art (and/ or craft) is not the principal focus. The term process refers to the process of the formation of art, like gathering, sorting, collating, associating and pattern. Process art is concerned with the actual doing and how actions can be defined as an actual work of art; seeing the art as pure human expression, it often entails an inherent motivation, rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.



Drawnonward
David Connearn
2001