The following essay by Rose Marie Szulc was initially presented as part of the 14th Tamworth Textile Biennial, Frisson curated by Gillian McCraken in 2002. It was delivered as a lecture at the Australian National University and is reproduced in this issue of the Craft Australia news with permission by the artist. The Tamworth Biennial is a regular exhibition featuring contemporary textile practice. Each show is curated by and independent curator and takes a different view of this vast field of practice. Craft Australia has reproduced this paper as an historic counterpoint to the current Biennial that is touring Australia, a matter of time curated by Suzi Attiwill.

Drawing may be considered as the representation of the actual or imagined by sign or symbol. A means by which you personally start to make sense of perception, what you choose to see and how you see it. This process informs the art of mark making, whether it be through pencil, brushstroke or the hole that a needle with/out thread makes when it is passed through a cloth. I would include even the technique of appropriating others (acknowledged) words. Everything becomes a drawing.

[T]o sketch the disciplinary mix[,] introducing those of my colleagues who have come to participate in this workshop... ¹

Kant devoted himself to making his class understand. The class who listened to Kant avoided the powder and got only the jam. ²

In this case the experience of art is not something radically different from the experience of talking about something, in philosophy, in science, in everyday discourse. It is at once a moment and a permanent corrective. Here we are still, talking about something, asking ourselves how we talk about it and if there can be a moment when the discourse stops. The implicit answer is no, for no discourse stops only because we say to it, 'You are beautiful.' On the contrary, it is precisely at this point that that discourse asks us to be taken up again in the work of interpretation. ³

...[P]rocessed through the consciousness of what it means now... ⁴

[T]he feelings of the beautiful and sublime vary according to national characteristics. ⁵

[T]he fantastic moves from an external world which existed in the supernatural order of creation, independent of an individuals imagination, and comes instead to find a new, paradoxically modern single mind of a person[. F]or good or ill; it becomes one with the subject or writer or artists vision. ⁶

And thus it appears that, though understanding is capable of being instructed, and of being equipped with rules, judgement is a peculiar talent which can be practised only and cannot be taught. It is the specific quality of so-called mother-wit, and its lack no school can make good. For although an abundance of rules borrowed from the insight of others may indeed be preferred to, and, as it were, grafted upon, a limited understanding, the power of rightly employing them must be left to the learner himself; and in the absence of such a natural gift no rule that may be prescribed to him for this purpose can ensure against misuse. ⁷

Bunch of characters aren't they? These are your teachers, I don't know any of them personally.

Writing of theory (even in relation to the humble drawing) and assuming a particular stance, an extrapolation is required. As if to prove, convince the reader of 'the correctness' of the thoughts contained therein. My limited understanding of Kant is skimming and secondary. He was a philosopher, cultured European white, born in 1724, lived most of his adult life in Königsberg, Germany until his death in 1804. In his writings Kant made an '...allegation...that [the Synthetic] Negro is inherently stupid'.⁸ Can you ever truly know what another person really thinks or even begin to understand cultural difference?

What does this Kant guy have to do with drawing you may ask? A lot actually, in the conceptual sense. Try firstly by thinking yourself into something other as an advancement for your drawing skills.

'Is a whole person ideal always illusory in a pragmatically significant way? Are grand gestures never necessary?' ⁹ Draw as you will, sections, pieces, portions. Be dyslexic if you want, surely I can't imagine why the absurd shouldnt be a bird. This class, whilst classy, is déclassé (it really doesn't cost anything). Attempt to get beyond any notion of the primitive as the supposed primitive is frequently supremely cultured. One example: for some Aboriginal people, Uluru is perceived as an animal (spirit) as well as a rock. ¹⁰ There is nothing wrong with that, it just might be hard for some to see it that way.

Another parallel for the act of creating something that supposedly doesn't exist. Eco describes this in his discussion of Marco Polo. All those years ago, the travelling Marco Polo encountered for the first time a rhinoceros. He thought it must be the mythical unicorn which according to the accepted mythology of the time, were supposed to be white.

Marco Polo had to admit that that unicorn was not white but black. This obliged him to correct his first hypothesis. What happened when he said this is black? And did he say it before or after hypothesizing that the animal was a unicorn? And if he said it before, why did he nevertheless insist on the hypothesis that it was a unicorn? And when he realized that the animal did not coincide with his idea of the unicorn, did he simply admit that what he saw was not a unicorn, or did he correct his idea of unicorns, deciding that the world also contained ill-favoured black unicorns? ¹¹

Could white be black? Why do the inhabitants of my drawings (some pictured) often look as if they are black people. In some cases they are, or representations of same. The other possible explanation is that I use black textile markers as one of my favourite drawing tools so once again, everyone ends up looking black.

Eco asks, '...is it by law or by nature that the image of Mickey Mouse reminds us of a mouse?' ¹² We are conditioned to respond to Mickey as a mouse not because he necessarily looks like one but because we have been told so often that he is one, that we suspend our notion of reality to accommodate this fantasy. Similarly, if someone tells you often enough that you can't draw, you will eventually believe them. Don't. There is always room for improvement, even if you'll never be the best.

Back to Mickey, the mouse that can be cute, eek, or both. Warner writes very convincingly about this process of representation in her book. If you really find drawing a boring and unnecessary task, persevere. '[M]asquerading as knowledge...' ¹³, your drawing will improve over time just from the simple fact of learning to understand the materials and refusing to be frightened of a blank piece of paper. '[S]peak to, rather than at or past, those whom we hope to persuade. [There are] many complex processes of ordering and limitation...'¹⁴

'We all recognize that some works of art may be just as good as they could be, may have an artistic perfection in which we can find no flaw, and yet that they are slight or have a narrow range, compared to others in which we can perhaps recognise many defects, which have nevertheless, a greatness which the former kind are without.' ¹⁵ The real difficulty often lies in the meaning we may give to our drawing: work in progress, unfinished, aide mémoire or complete. This is for your taste/preference to decide. The critics will perhaps have a field day but who are you doing this for? Not them surely!

Is this making sense? Try drawing yourself as the Synthetic Negro, a Queen of Australia. 'A particular portion of the legitimate territory of its domain resists its dominion.' ¹⁶ Perhaps your dreams aren't that grand, it doesn't really matter, but try not to limit your imagination too much. And save your drawings by using a fixative - hairspray on paper works if the budget is slim.

On to logical proof. There is no universal concept on drawing. Not everything '...is capable of deduction from a single principle.' ¹⁷

Kant no more assumes that judgements of beauty are universally valid than he assumes that judgements of fact are always true. ¹⁸

Revisionism A side: sense us, B side: bananas. Standard bane of the drawing teacher, regarding hands of course, what were you thinking?

The High Sign written by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, 21 minutes. In Killer, the Game of Assassination (Indiana, 1981), a live role-playing fantasy game by Steve Jackson, there is a section in the rule book called, Modern Weapons, which includes bananas (Class A). It continues: A banana is the ultimate non-violent weapon. To attack with a banana, you must get within three feet of your victim, draw your banana, and shout "Bang!"

A banana requires no marksmanship. However, a certain amount of skill is required, since a banana is hard to conceal and not truly suitable for a quick-draw attack. If the banana is crushed while in the assassin's pocket, it cannot be used, though it may still be eaten.

The banana is also the safest pistol from the assassin's point of view. Bystanders are not likely to intervene when one person chases another down the street brandishing a banana. Indeed, they may not believe that they saw it. 'A how-to illustration follows.' ¹⁹

As the Synthetic Negro, I have stepped in with my extensive quotations, tracings, drawings from life, patterns and pretence. I attempt to subvert by feeding back exactly what in some senses has destroyed what I hope to encourage. Maybe I can't draw but I do regret the passing of traditional methods that made much of eye/brain/hand skills.

The theme that [should] emerge follows a cultural emphasis even more highly marked during the last decades: the submergence of narrative beneath spectacle, the weakening of discursive intelligence in favour of visual stimulus, the leaching of history by image. ²⁰

The wise fool will appreciate these implications for creativity. That eventually, the skills that are lost today will again become highly prized in the future. Picture warmth. I am '...arguing for the recovery of culture, of art forms continuous with living, the creativity that makes everyday life balanced and elegant.' ²¹ I will continue as the Synthetic Negro, Queen of Australia. I have (and hopefully you do too) an imagination. Please continue to nurture this.

Rose Marie Szulc March 2005

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