Sounding Landshapes

Ink on Arches watercolor paper
Each approx. 42 x 29.7 cm
2020

The “rule” for these vector drawings is that first a main shape is drawn, which becomes the target for the vectors in the drawing. Then, all the vectors depart from a fixed line (whether straight or curved). When each vector arrives at the boundary of the shape, it bounces off the local tangent at a precise, predetermined billiard angle. Therefore, the angles and overlapping of lines in the drawings are predetermined by the system; once the vector departs its source, the system dictates how it will interact with the shape. The directions of the lines are indicated by small arrows.

This series is an attempt to measure, not landscapes, but landshapes: geometrical shapes as terrain. Sounding Landshapes is related to other projects of mine investigating cartography, and has been developed alongside my conceptual structure of “andscapes.”

Landshapes exist in the two-dimensional world of drawing. Landshapes are forms in their own right; drawn lines act on and react to them as phenomena rather than representations. Landshapes acknowledge the drawing artifact itself as terrain, as operational, as landscape where action happens. Landshapes are not just sketches of experiments, but are experiments unto themselves. Landshapes are generative. Landshapes are defiant in their flatness.

(Please note that most of these images are central details of the drawings, around which there is a lot of white space.)