I dived into the surface of the paper. Beneath me, carbon residuals (charcoal) assisted my passage as I slide across the white paper, parting the material and marking the paper. John Hazel who was co-creating the charcoal drawing with me, followed by stepping and drawing with his shod foot. The dance studio at the Old Fire Station, Oxford was our performance venue for this ‘drawing-dance’ on Tuesday 16 January 2024.
A drawing made by movement
John and I set up the stage or performance area by taping rolls of paper to the dance floor, creating a continuous papered area about 1.5 metres by 3 metres. We emptied the bio-char granules – which is charcoal (carbon) onto it – creating piles without any particular ordering. This meant that we’d not need to keep feeding it onto the paper bit by bit and we could fully concentrate on mark making. The decision to work in a single colour – black – also assisted in this focus. Imagine if we’d used colour and had to make colour decisions too! Hesitance and prevarication would have killed it.
Jazz inspiration
Improvising jazz musicians work in a shared space. Infact, they also share the performance time too – they share space and time.
Usually – but not always, fine artists produce work individually. It’s unusual for them to collaborate directly. Although murals are often collaborations and indeed artists may employ ‘assistances’ in their studios too.
Dancers often dance together but of course there are solos. In this project and for this residuals performance, there was a shared canvas – and the charcoal drawing was co-created by John and me. There was another dance partner – the paper surface and indeed the floor or earth, supporting us all. Oh yes, and gravity! Mostly, we were like improvising jazz musicians in our approach.
Performance recording
Note: There are captions for this video which you can show by changing the captions or subtitle setting to ‘on’!
Landscape, installation, drawing
The idea underlying the residuals project is dance making and mark making. Their unification.
However, what we produced was not simply marks on a surface i.e a drawing. It’s also an artefact, and looking at the video you’ll see how the piles of charcoal residuals are moved on the surface. The result is actually like a landscape. There are piles of carbon, valleys, hillocks, scree, moraines. Physical geographers would find much that is familiar here.
At one point in the performance, John uses a diffuser spray to introduce water onto the surface of the drawing. And rather like a water course in a landscape, debris – particles, dust and sediment is moved upon it, creating intricate and delightful patterns and features.
During the performance, you’ll notice that we stop to photograph the drawing and the detail in it. Just as we photograph a landscape, framing a pleasing part of it, so here we did the same, in the landscape of the drawing.
Catching the bus
John had to leave and catch the bus home. Was that the end of the performance? I had to clear up! The paper and dance floor around it were covered in charcoal and charcoal dust. There was a tap class in the dance studio that evening!
However, as I used to broom to clear the residuals from the paper surface, I was changing it and recomposing it. Was the performance over?
There were some lovely marks created as the sweepings formed edges. Fines, ordered and reordered. I photographed the surface repeatedly as the clearing proceeded. The finer dust was revealed like a photographic developing process. Eventually, most of the dust not affixed to the surface was swept up.
An inspection by the staff of the Old Fire station lead to the suggestion that not only should I sweep the floor and wash it with a mop but use a vacuum cleaner on it too. At that stage the paper was still on the floor and as I vacuumed around the paper, I noticed it could remove dust from the paper surface, revealing white like an eraser. Of course, I set about drawing a designed on the paper. I’d discovered a new mark making tool and technique.
Finally, I lifted the paper from its horizontal position on the floor and hung it on a wall; just as most drawings are displayed.
Movement analysis
There is a rudimentary movement analysis for the performance included in the captions or subtitles of the video.
For completeness, the captions are included below. The format is a .srt file format which includes the time that the particular caption is shown and removed from display.
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00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:03,752
Dance & Movement Research 2024
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00:00:03,898 –> 00:00:06,423
Residuals #1
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00:00:06,599 –> 00:00:09,270
Artists & dance artists:
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Andrew Wood (suited) & John Hazel
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Old Fire Station dance studio, Oxford (UK)
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00:00:15,255 –> 00:00:19,182
Tuesday 16 January 2024
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00:00:21,175 –> 00:00:25,160
Andrew: slide, roll
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00:00:33,246 –> 00:00:39,240
John: step, foot drawing, drag
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00:00:45,108 –> 00:00:49,080
Andrew: spin, travel spinning
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00:01:10,629 –> 00:01:14,600
John: trowelling
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00:01:22,811 –> 00:01:26,800
Andrew: pressing, drawing, inscribing
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00:01:42,345 –> 00:01:48,320
John: brushing, trowelling, arching, spreading
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00:02:02,397 –> 00:02:06,360
Andrew: kneeling, crushing, pushing
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00:02:18,277 –> 00:02:24,240
Andrew: waddling, foot and thigh drawing, into arch
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00:02:30,741 –> 00:02:34,720
John: feet scrumpching
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00:02:36,801 –> 00:02:39,800
John: shuffling, impressing
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00:03:08,211 –> 00:03:10,211
Andrew: mounding into piles
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00:03:10,211 –> 00:03:14,200
Andrew: pile pressing, rotating
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00:03:30,400 –> 00:03:34,400
John: brush skating, swerving
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00:03:36,160 –> 00:03:45,200
John: zig-zag, gimmbling
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00:04:01,238 –> 00:04:06,200
Andrew: leg arching, rolling
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00:04:09,137 –> 00:04:14,120
John: inscribing, scrubbing
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00:04:50,895 –> 00:04:55,880
Andrew: impressing, arch
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00:05:08,360 –> 00:05:12,360
John: trowelling
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00:05:22,230 –> 00:05:26,200
Andrew: shuffling on feet
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00:05:33,454 –> 00:05:37,440
Andrew: giro (tango!)
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00:05:53,875 –> 00:05:58,840
John: feet blending
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00:07:09,181 –> 00:07:14,160
John: pouring residuals onto edge of paper
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00:07:48,315 –> 00:07:55,280
Andrew: patting paper, disturbing charcoal
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00:08:00,000 –> 00:08:05,000
John: crushing edge with steps
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00:08:15,222 –> 00:08:19,200
Andrew: scrubbing with floor brush
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00:08:24,522 –> 00:08:28,520
John: floor brushing
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00:09:12,481 –> 00:09:17,480
Andrew: pushing, pressing wooden handle circular
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00:09:29,163 –> 00:09:33,160
John: long strides, dragging
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00:10:23,932 –> 00:10:27,920
John: spraying water with diffuser
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00:10:30,514 –> 00:10:35,480
Andrew: gloved hand circular rubbing, arcing
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00:11:15,323 –> 00:11:18,320
Andrew: pouring water
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00:11:44,302 –> 00:11:49,280
Andrew: drawing wet residuals/ink
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00:12:00,441 –> 00:12:04,440
John: spraying water, dispersion
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00:12:43,419 –> 00:12:47,400
John: photographing with digital phone
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00:13:03,142 –> 00:13:08,120
Andrew: foot and leg arcing
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00:15:15,017 –> 00:15:19,000
Andrew: insert chair
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00:17:16,493 –> 00:17:21,480
Andrew: drawing, pushing with gloved hands
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00:17:43,945 –> 00:17:47,920
Andrew: arched hand and arm movement
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00:18:15,750 –> 00:18:21,720
John: illumination with interior lighting
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00:18:43,450 –> 00:18:47,440
Andrew: signs paper, writing
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00:19:00,440 –> 00:19:20,440
Further information see: https://andrewdance.org/tag/residuals/