Contemporary drawing: considering a semiotics of corporeality-materiality

Abstract

This article considers key strategies deployed in the history of drawing since the 1970s and how these work towards interfaces between the corporeality of the artist and the materiality of the drawing itself. Connections between such interfaces and Umberto Eco's typology of modes of sign production are considered in relation to each key drawing strategy. Such connections may contribute to semiotics for drawing which takes into account the growing importance and complexity of corporeality-materiality in the face of what Elizabeth Grosz has called the profound "somatophobia" (1999:5) of the Western dualist philosophical tradition. Contemporary drawing critiques this tradition through its multifarious practices, while exploring its own parameters to become a transcognitive activity involving modes of sigifiacation [signification] and materials and bodies mutually productive in the act of making.

Hierdie artikel handel oor sleutelstrategiee in die geskiedenis van tekenkuns sedert die sewentigerjare van die twintigste eeu en hoe hulle medebepalend is van die verband tussen die kunstenaar se liggaamlikheid en die materialiteit van 'n tekening. Verbindings tussen sulke skakels en Umberto Eco se tipologie van wyses van produksie van tekens word ten opsigte van elke sleutelstrategie behandel. Sodanige verbande sal waarskynlik kan bydra tot 'n semiotiek vir tekenkuns wat die toenemende belangrikheid en kompleksiteit van liggaamlikheid-materialiteit in ag neem, waarna Elizabeth Grosz verwys as die diepgaande "somatophobia" van die Westerse dualistiese wysgerige tradisie. Kontemporere tekenkuns lewer kritiek op hierdie tradisie by wyse van die veelvuldige praktyke wat dit kenmerk, terwyl dit gelyktydig eie parameters eksploreer ten einde 'n transkognitiewe handeling te word wat modusse van signifikasie, sowel as materiaal en liggame betrek, wat gesamentlik in die handeling van kuns maak produktief is.