after lucretius / de rerum natura

the new drawings deal with lucretius: de rerum natura / on the nature of things.
( first century B.C.) a classical poem / epicurean philosophy.
the sweep of his observations of life...a poem about the universe.
i make sense of the world around me...a philosophy of the ordinary / everyday.
objects of daily use...stillness...
the banal, the simple...living in the moment.
the politics of this…

Shelagh Keeley (full text below)


Memory depends on void, as void depends on memory to think.

Anne Carson



Shelagh Keeley (born Oakville, Ontario) lives now in Toronto after spending 23 years in New York City and Paris. She received her Honours BFA in art history / anthropology from York University, Toronto.

Keeley has an extensive international exhibition history over the last 30 years and has travelled across the globe. She recently created an on-site commissioned wall drawing installation at Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, Germany for the exhibition In Order to Join (2013), which will travel to Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, India (2014). Keeley has had exhibitions at Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India (2013), Ryerson Image Centre,Toronto (2013), Nuit Blanche, Paris, France (2012), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2010), Caoyang Village Public Art Project, Shanghai,China (2009), National Gallery of Canada travelling exhibition (2008), RAM Foundation, Rotterdam (2008), Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2004), Printed Matter, NYC (1998), Indianapolis Museum of Art (1995), John Gibson Gallery, NYC (1994), Exit Art, NYC (1993), MOMA P.S.1 Museum, NY (1992), DIA Art Foundation, NYC (1989).

Her work is in the collection of major international public institutions including: The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Les Muses de la Ville de Paris, Paris, The Getty Museum, Santa Monica, Harvard Art Museum, Boston, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Yale University Art Gallery, CT, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA.


http://shelaghkeeley.com/gouache-drawings-2013/



the space in the drawing
power of intuition
a sense of place...marking that space in the wall drawings.

grain of the film / photography...grain of the drawing.
i draw with the camera...
japanese MA / collapse of space and time
drawing / photography / film / architecture
working directly on the walls for 35 yrs.

a sense of the ordinary / everyday as remarkable.
accidental possibilities / imperfection / incompleteness
the ephemeral / vulnerable.

the narrative of place...re-thinking space and mapping now
...a visual diary.
a new way of thinking about the space in that moment
in time with the gesture of the drawing on the wall.
i reclaim space through gesture...
conceptual abstraction
an open notebook spreading across the wall.

haptic drawings
haptic a. pertaining to the sense of touch (from greek)
haptikos - able to touch.
drawing traces...

for me the drawing process is about slowness.
it is a highly intuitive, conceptual process.
i am expanding notions of conceptual art...involving
the body, gesture and instinctive intelligence.

the new drawings deal with lucretius: de rerum natura / on the nature of things.
( first century B.C.) a classical poem / epicurean philosophy.
the sweep of his observations of life...a poem about the universe.
i make sense of the world around me...a philosophy of the ordinary / everyday.
objects of daily use...stillness...
the banal, the simple...living in the moment.
the politics of this...

drawing as site
moving around and through the architecture / walls / film
narrative of place / re-thinking space in relation to the body.

the drawings are a language of signs
the language of drawing
influence of desire and eros
an economy of means in the drawing.
i work with visceral / sensual materials

the drawings are about embodiment...

the room is a container and the walls are its skin.
the drawing is concerned with the strength of vulnerability, fragility
and slowness...coming from a space of intuition and instinctive intelligence.
the process of drawing...corporeality, liminality, embodiment, ephemeral
and vulnerable situations.

drawing as a system of thought / a visual structure.
drawing through process and materials...
drawing at the intersection of philosophy, the political
and the deeply personal.

a thinking process on the wall
that moment in time and space
my response to the wall / space.
drawings floating over the photographs...
photos / collages submerged under the drawings.

the wall drawing develops out of the working process on-site.
the desire to leave a mark on the wall...

the wall drawing becomes a diary / journal of that
moment in time...it is a collage / a giant open notebook.
i let the walls / space speak to me...i find my way through the drawing,
intuition and research...the fluid space of the wall.


— Shelagh Keeley