Andrea Bowers and Suzanne Lacy: Drawing Lessons (2014)
Suzanne Lacy and Andrea Bowers
Andrea Bowers and Suzanne Lacy: Drawing Lessons was a nine-day installation at The Drawing Center, during which artist Andrea Bowers attempted to teach Suzanne Lacy to draw. Each day for nine days, Bowers offered Lacy lessons open to the public amidst an installation of the lesson environment—lights, platform, drawing easels, props, etc. Working together under the scrutiny of the audience, Bowers and Lacy explored the questions, in work and conversation, that they en- gage with in their individual practices. The project served as a platform for extended conversations with special guests: curators, union organizers, and artists who draw or do performances—all reflecting on feminism, performance art, drawing, and socio-political issues of concern to the artists. For example: what are the roles and problems of representation in public art practice? How do artists reconcile activist and field-based practices with the necessities of production for the gallery and museum? What is the relationship between first and second generation Feminism? What is the role of venue, object, and style in the identification and evaluation of art? In the back room of the exhibition, Lacy and Bowers camped in small tents throughout the duration of the event, echoing immersive and durational performance art practices of the Seventies. As this was an intensive and actual attempt to teach Lacy to draw, lessons lasted several hours per day with drawing practice in between sessions.
Curated by Claire Gilman. With support from Nova Benway, Kate Hardy and James Wang.