Collective and collaborative drawing in contemporary practice

A detail taken from a much larger drawing, that was used for the front cover

There is a new book on drawing coming out on December 1st that followers of this blog may find interesting, if only because I have written chapter 8 and provided the illustration for the front cover. It's entitled: 'Collective and collaborative drawing in contemporary practice'. 

Chapter eight is focused on my own practice and in particular is an examination of a body of work I was making in Chapeltown, Leeds. So that you can get an idea of my contribution to the book, below is a copy of the text used by the publisher as a guide to what the chapter contains. 

Chapter Eight
Drawing as a Tool for Shaping Community Experience into Collective Allegory


This chapter offers an account of an artist using drawing to develop images of allegorical significance within an inner-city community. It highlights the ways in which a variety of drawing methodologies can be used to respond to different community concerns, considering drawings as a visualisation tool, analogy, invention, narrative and visual allegory. Barker believes that drawing can be used to develop a deeper understanding of difference and of the mutual interests of various residents within a multi-cultural community. He also argues that drawing can act as a catalyst to help the wider community approach issues of contemporary urban life and associated political and social issues.
Five related but separate drawing methodologies are examined with regard to their capacity to foster different types of visual understanding in relation to a particular community. Traditional objective drawing is examined in relation to its ability to not only document an area but as a method of conversational engagement and as a way of getting people to look at a place they think they already know well. Drawing as imaginative play and image generation, in relation to stories told and world views expressed, is explored as a way of developing a dialogue with others and as a tool for the generation of possibilities for an artist’s own practice. Architectural illustration and associated technical drawing skills are examined for their potential uses as community envisioning tools and as instruments for change and the implementation of local environmental projects. Map making is opened out as a tool for enabling effective community ownership of both real and imagined events and reflections upon large scale narrative drawings are used to illustrate how these various drawing methodologies can be brought together to create complex and transparent interconnections between concepts.
The various ways that drawing has been used as a tool to foster debate and argument are highlighted. Images are always open to interpretation and Barker argues that this is vital to a community “reading” of allegorical drawings, as “readers” have automatic ownership of their interpretations, thus avoiding the problems associated with more didactic approaches. Visualisations are also essential to community ideation. Drawing is shown to be a kernel around which images can be developed that address issues within a more universal context. Drawings produced within a local context present an opportunity for a negotiated re-imagination, providing a space for the development of a deeper understanding of shared contexts.

Full details of the book can be found here.

Other more writings by myself can be found here