Live Transmission / Performative Drawing

In 1989, I began the practice of the Japanese martial art, aikido. In the martial arts, one trains using both sides of the body, and slowly, through practice, asymmetries and imbalances sort themselves into better balance. Consequently, the left and right hemispheres of the brain also become better coordinated. After a while, it felt awkward and off-center for me to be drawing with only my right hand, so I took up another pencil and since then have been drawing with both hands. Gradually over time I have become almost ambidextrous through this practice, and I often draw with up to twenty pencils simultaneously, moving each pencil independently. The number of pencils I use is determined by the subject of the inquiry.

Live Transmission of the principle of vitality is the theoretical base for my work. I record energy transmissions seen through movement. This work overlaps two centuries. The focus on attention in se became more and more apparent as the work progressed. Contemplation through calm observation, the dialectic between observer-participant, participant-observer, control versus relaxed participation, all coalesce to form the conceptual base for Live Transmission. The Live Transmission process is a merging and stepping forward in the traditions of life drawing, portraiture, landscape, and calligraphy.

Faithful, non-judgmental, non-interpretive, tracking is my modus operandi. Aesthetics of form and composition occur through the process. The work serves as witness, testimony, and validation, honoring activity as well as human life. Through this work, art has taken on the role of communicator beyond the specificity of language. I work to transmit the trajectory of the movement of whatever I am drawing, without interjection or interpretation, concentrating on truthfulness and integrity of line.

This work is the opposite of automatic writing. Relaxed mental concentration and precise attention to the subject is basic. Rather than becoming “lost” in the process, I attempt to be totally present in order to transmit as closely as possible whatever action I am following.

Macau Morning. This photo was taken in the early morning while I was drawing the movement of a man sweeping the courtyard of the Old Ladies House Artist Residency in Macau in 2001. Photo: Frank Lei.

ART/LIFE Performance with Thai dancer Pichet Klunchun. Asiatopia is an international performance art festival in Thailand begun in 1998. This performance took place at the Bangkok Arts Center in December 2012. Pichet Klunchum is a traditionally trained Thai dance master. His company Lifework performs his contemporary choreography. Pichet reacted to and initiated movement in relation to the two words “live” and “work” attached to the bicycle and my position in space while I drew his hand movements. Photo: Sinead O’Donnell.

Movement of a Chilean Percussionist. While working at the international performance art festival Deformes in Chile in 2008, I tracked the hand movement of Chilean percussionist Esteban Robledo performing on the roof of the Mapuche Collective in downtown Santiago. The line drawing done with pencil on paper was later projected on a wall in the MeetFactory in Prague. The spaces between the lines were painted with flat black acrylic paint on the white wall by thirty volunteers over the course of ten days. Exhibition 16-20,000 HZ, 2013, 16’ × 40’. Photo: Ondrej Bouska.

Square Dance performed by Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Merce Fair at Lincoln Center on July 16, 2011.

For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (opening sequence) by Tanztheater Pina Bausch was performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York on November 21, 2004. Both drawings were done with graphite on Bristol paper and measure 14" × 17".