Arachne’s Loom: A public art drawing for Porto Design Biennale 2019

Abstract

The essay claims that a substantial part of contemporary drawing research has worked on the conceptual boundaries of what drawing is or when it takes place. It reports on a piece of public art on the limits of drawing that illustrates contemporary research issues based on drawings as elements or substantial parts of installations, public art, urban interventions, performances, unconventional media and materials. The piece – Arachne’s Loom – was an installation of 1500 m of black fibre-optic cable displayed across an artificial lake connecting a public library building to five computer heads. It was paired with a wind turbine blade placed in a public square – The Children of Eos – and the two together were presented under the title Hard Design. Curating this intervention was an opportunity to explore in a practical way issues that interweave the materiality/immateriality of graphic elements and that have been an important part of the author’s previous work. The wind turbine blade and cables installed in public spaces set up a number of polarities, two of which are relevant for drawing research: monuments vs. festivals and shapes vs. shapeless. Within the first polarity, a symbolic foundation for public art rooted in ancient myths is discussed. Particular attention is given to the power of Arachne’s myth as a cautionary narrative connected to the origins of both figurative and abstract drawing. Within the second polarity, in opposition to the wind blade’s distinct, ‘pure’ form, the rhizomatic structure of a web-like network of fibre-optic cables is explored in the context of drawing research. The text links philosophical rhizomes, real rhizomes, representations of rhizomes and visual allusions to rhizomes with public art, drawing, drawing as process, the World Wide Web and its extensions. The epilogue frames the piece within Nelson Goodman’s aesthetics, suggesting that further research into the work of this philosopher may open interesting paths for drawing theory.