Forum For Drawing

The Forum for Drawing has been established to provide a platform for a dialogue about drawing at London College of Fashion. It seeks to nurture a broad interpretation of drawing from hands-on pencil on paper to the digital, video and performance within the context of creative practice at LCF.

The forum meets regularly for informal presentations by artists, designers, researchers for whom drawing plays an important, but not always central, role in their practice or research. It is an open forum, welcoming both staff and students throughout the university with their guests to come together to discuss and debate issues around drawing.

Presentations during the year 2007 - 2008 have included Mapping with Threads by Deborah True, artist, Associate Lecturer at Central St Martins and research student at Wimbledon School of Art in which she discussed research into her East End of London heritage and the rag trade explored through her drawing practice; Kelly Chorpening, artist and Course Leader of BA Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts who showed her sculptural drawn installations; and a group presentation by BA Fashion Illustration students from LCF which resulted in a lively discussion about the role of drawing for their art practice.

This year the programme has included presentations by Stephen Farthing RA, painter and Rootstein Hopkins Professor in Drawing at University of the Arts London who in his talk The Bigger Picture of Drawing argued for the democratization of drawing, opening up drawing practice to include lines drawn on the grass to define the boundaries within the tennis court and measured plans prepared by an engineer; Jeremy Radvan, artist and Associate Lecturer at LCF who showed digital films which combined his interest in ‘hands- on’ drawing and computer programming ; Heather Phillipson, artist, poet and musician and Artist in Residence at London College of Fashion 2008-2009 who talked about her performance and video works in her exhibition in the Fashion Space Gallery, LCF; Catherine Elwes, video artist and Professor of Moving Image at Camberwell College of Arts who discussed the relationship between drawing, in terms of a journey, and video, showing examples from the screening exhibition Figuring Landscape co - curated by herself with Stephen Ball and shown extensively in Australia and the UK; and most recently Rachel Cattle, illustrator and filmmaker and Associate Lecturer at CSM, showing her hand drawn short films and comic books.

The particular flavour of the forum comes from the diversity of practice and levels, from course directors through to MA students, each given the platform to present their individual approach and observations about the role drawing to an audience that represents a broad cross section within the university. One of the distinguishing features of the forums has been the generosity of the speakers to share their work and research with colleagues, resulting in a rich and varied programme.

Proposals for presentations are welcomed.
For further information or to be placed on the emailing list please contact:
Charlotte Hodes, Senior Research Fellow in Drawing, LCF
c.hodes@fashion.arts.ac.uk

See Events page for upcoming Forum for Drawing Events