Irene Barberis

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