Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East 2
International Conference and exhibition program Global Centre for Drawing, American University in Dubai.
2014
Hosted by the Department of Visual Communication, in the School of Architecture, Art & Design at the American University in Dubai, and partners with the Global Centre for Drawing, Melbourne Australia.
Crossing the Line 2: Drawing in the Middle East - intersections of transdisciplinary practice and understanding brings together specialists from various fields of research and practices to examine the role of drawing in the contemporary Middle East and its wider international interactions.
Crossing the Line2 : Drawing in the Middle East, - ‘location’
Tracing the Lineage: Deconstructing the title – "Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East”
Crossing the Line : What actually does this mean?
Various dictionaries say that ‘Crossing the Line ’or ‘to cross a line’ ‘is to go too far, step over the line …move into uncharted territories, cross from one location to another, or more literally physically ‘to cross a line’.
The force in the meaning propels us to think of something in a negative sense – you have ‘crossed the line’! or in a more positive sense – we are crossing the line – moving forward…we WILL go into uncharted territories….”
As artists, designers, scientists, in fact in any creative domain - we desire or aspire to/cross the line or ‘a line’ – to go further, think deeper, wider more incisively…to push against the boundaries and enlarge our understandings, locations, our knowledge, and experience as human beings.
Drawing in the Middle East – Here is a twofold expression, a double entendre – it is either – ‘Drawing in the Middle East’ – a pulling inwards toward a centre or point – or a geographical location of ‘Drawing in the Middle East ‘– the title was meant to do both – a call for attention through dialogue – in this case through the visual language of drawing throughout the Middle East – and it is also a ‘count’, a type of audit of ‘drawing’ that is happening in the Middle East now – a gathering of artists, ideas, perceptions and projections.
Dr. Irene Barberis
Links:
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Valerie Hird. Maiden Voyages Project, 2009. Excerpt from Iranian Diary (top row – October 2009, bottom row – July 2009). Graphite, watercolour, asphaltum, ink, coloured pencil. Top row: 18.5 (H) x 31.5 (W) cm. Bottom row: 18.5 (H) x 42 (W) cm.
Reni Gower. Papercuts: White/cobalt, 2013. Acrylic on hand cut paper, 206 cm x 142 cm. Photograph: Reni Gower.
Irene Barberis. Location: 'then I heard behind me a great voice...', drawn 2012, installation 2014 (detail). Four strands of handwritten silicone texts, 1.3 m x variable widths.
Carole Robb. On Location, Rome, 2014. Pencil on paper, 27 x 20 cm.
GEOMETRIC ALJAMIA: A CULTURAL TRANSLITERATION a group exhibition featuring works by Julia Townsend and artists from the US, Canada, and Afghanistan
Janet McKenzie Sanctuary 1984 Edition of 30 Drypoint 14 x 17 cm
students of the Visual Communication Department, AUD, getting ready for Crossing the Line 2 Conference, photo by Julia Townsend