2008
Bonington Gallery, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
The Drawing Wall was an element within the Drawing Out exhibition held at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham.
All staff in the school of Art and Design, from the Dean to technicians, receptionists, professors, lectures and visiting artists, were invited to submit a 'drawing' to this inclusive 'survey'.
170 works made up the Drawing Wall which was part of a curated exhibition at the Bonington and 1851 galleries. Drawing Out includes selected works using painting, computer animation, sculpture, kinetic construction, ceramics, video projection and text - all exploring the variety of interpretations of, and uses for, drawing.
Almost Nine. Pencil on paper with section cut away. 30 x 30 cm.
Almost Nine was produced specifically for the Drawing Wall by Andrew Pepper and was located in the upper right of the collection.
"When I was a child I used to draw all the time. People told me I was 'good' and should be an artist. The things I drew looked like the things I saw - they were accurate reproductions. A record of an observation. The more accurate they were the more 'impressive' people found them and the less interesting they were for me.
Today drawing is much more about working through an idea, navigating a thought, planning something, placement - a precursor to making. Something beyond a subconscious doodle and not quite accurate enough to 'be anything'.
Almost Nine is a collection of bounded surfaces - edges separating one visual space from another. Just like the much larger Drawing Wall itself, multiple elements are placed next to each other. The only specification for submitting a drawing for the wall was that it should occupy a 30 x 30 cm piece of paper. All the same but all very different once they had been drawn on.
The 9 rectangles anticipated the grid-like installation of the Drawing Wall with the content of the last drawn boundary removed - cut away to reveal the space beneath. That space fascinates me."
Andrew Pepper. April 2008
Exhibition detail. Nine of the 170 submitted drawings on the Drawing Wall
Exhibition dates: 21st April - 9th May 2008