Deanna Petherbridge is an artist and writer on drawing who has contributed deeply to the way that drawing is thought about as a contemporary art practice. However her work and her interests overlap two drawing categories, both fine art and architecture come within her remit as a draughtswoman. In her large pen and ink drawings architecture becomes a metaphor for the human condition and the hubris of humans. Perhaps it is this hybridity that makes her drawings interesting, the slippage between disciplines allowing her to make drawings that are not easy to pin down, as they are clearly not plans or ideas for future building projects and on first impression they remind us of Piranesi's exploration of what were known at the time as 'capriccio' images, in his case drawings and prints representing a fantasy or a mixture of real and imaginary buildings.
I was reminded of Deanna Petherbridge's work because she is in the same 'Step and Stair' exhibition as myself in the Art Space Gallery at Michael Richardson Contemporary Art in London. Then, as my mind tends to work by drawing loose threads together, I was further reminded that she often writes for 'Drawing Matter' an organisation that explores the role of drawing in architectural thought and practice. I have not mentioned Drawing Matter before, because it tends to be seen as something belonging to the world of architecture and not fine art, but as my belief is that drawing should be seen as a problem solving and communication tool that steps right across and over various discipline boundaries, that doesn't bother me, and I think the world of architectural drawing has a lot to offer fine art practitioners, especially in regards to spatial metaphor and drawing as idea visualisation.
The Art Space Gallery is devoting the exhibition after 'Step and Stair' to Deanna Petherbridge's work and the gallery will be publishing a catalogue of her drawings, and I will be very interested to both see and read that. Petherbridge's drawings use imagined architectural imagery as a metaphorical means to deal with social and political issues. Her drawing 'The Destruction of the City of Homs' beginning a long series of images commenting on migrations, walls, barriers and threatened peoples, things that I have also tried to respond to in drawing.
Go to the Drawing Matter site to read what Petherbridge has to say about her work, this is an excellent introduction to writing about drawing and the more you work your way into the site, the more you will find of interest, especially if like myself you have an interest in drawing's wider possibilities.
See also:
Online catalogue of the Step and Stair exhibition
Deanna Petherbridge at the Whitworth
An old exhibition dealing with similar issues
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