Pushing paper: contemporary drawing from 1970 to now MARCIA KURE on Drawing

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Written By MARCIA KURE

Marcia Kure talks about drawing and her work in the British Museum touring show:

Pushing paper: contemporary drawing from 1970 to now

A British Museum Touring exhibition. Generously supported by the Bridget Riley Art Foundation

19 September - 29 November 2020 - Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is part of the City of Swansea and supported by the Arts Council of Wales

Transcript from Video for Pushing paper: contemporary drawing from 1970 to now

I am fascinated by the idea of drawing-
To draw, to pull, to tug at something
Since my encounter with Uli script writing and South African cave drawings, I have always sought to push the boundaries of what drawing can be, what does it mean - to draw - Stretching the boundaries of its meaning, expanding the notion and freeing it from the confines of 2 dimensionality. Also, rethinking 2 dimension - what it mean as it relates to drawing?
This - in varied forms have been the quest central to my practice as an artist.

I have pulled needle and thread through fabric, used the cut of scissors as line, stitched with a sewing machine and drawn the spaces in-between line.
Felt and molded clay with my hands to form the contours of a body
And asked the question -

Must line be something you can see?
Can line be a leaf falling from a tree, a walk, can a be a journey. Can it also be the experiences within that journey?
Must drawing be visible to the naked eye?

One thing to always remember about drawing is that it is seminal, it marks the beginning of something and like a stem cell, drawing can become anything.

Drawing places a mark, it records time, space, distance and movement.

About the work in Pushing paper
The drawing in Pushing Paper was conceived as a suite of drawings for the Paris Triennale, Intense Proximity, curated by Okwui Enwezor, in 2012
It is a configuration of Uli scriptwriting from Southeastern Nigeria, the biomorphic shapes of Nok terracotta sculpture and Bamana Boli figures from Mali, Traditional hand-drawn Disney animation, surrealism, and a touch of kawaii

Following its initial presentation, the exhibition toured across the United Kingdom, extending its questions around inscription, power, and collective form into multiple institutional contexts. It was first presented at the British Museum in London (September 12, 2019 – January 12, 2020), before traveling to the Oriental Museum in Durham (February 29 – May 17, 2020). The work later moved to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea (September 19 – November 29, 2020), then to The Cooper Gallery in Barnsley (December 12, 2020 – March 6, 2021), and most recently to the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness (April 2 – June 4, 2022). Across these sites, the installation encountered new architectures and publics.

MARCIA KURE

Marcia Kure lives and works between the United States and Nigeria. She trained at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is an alumna of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.

Kure has held solo exhibitions across Nigeria, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Her work has been presented in major international exhibitions and biennials, including La Triennale, Paris (2013); the International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Seville (2006); and the Sharjah International Biennial (2005). In 2014, she participated in the 11th Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal. She was also included in Body Talk, a traveling exhibition presented at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; FRAC Lorraine, Metz; and Lunds Konsthall, Sweden. Additional group exhibitions include Not a Single Story at Wanås Konst, Sweden, and NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg (2018–19).

Kure has held academic and research appointments internationally, including Visiting Professor at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (2019–20); Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution (2008); and Visual Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2014). She is the recipient of the Uche Okeke Prize for Drawing (1994).

Her work is held in major public collections, including the British Museum, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Menil Collection, Houston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Newark Museum of Art; the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; the Princeton University Art Museum; the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art; the Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University; Iwalewahaus, Bayreuth; and FRAC Lorraine, among others.

https://www.marciakure.com/
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