X HABIT - CUBE EXHIBITIONS

HOME || CURRENT SHOW || PREVIOUS SHOWS

February 2005: Simon Webb // Selector



The drawings in this show are part of an ongoing project that explores the drives and music to affect us emotionally and aesthetically. Made by using pencils as drumsticks while drumming to - mainly indie - music, these process drawings are defined by the length and style of music, my ability as a drummer, and the amount of control (or lack of control) I have in the process of tapping pencil to paper. Each mark relates to a beat in the song, and most of the drawings are the sum of an album.

They are performed to the best of my ability to music I often know beat for beat, but throughout there is a kind of negotiation between being absorbed or lost in the .otherworldly. abstract dimension of the music, and the urge to make something tangible on paper. As a result the drawings often hint at recognisable images as they are allowed to develop during the course of the songs. Made through a partially subconscious process, they also give a nod to the automatic drawings of Andre Breton and early surrealism, and to the mescaline drawings of Henri Michaux.

As a consequence the drawings tread a line between a romanticised poetic interpretation and utterly prosaic description of the music. In one sense they are just fields of activity registered by the pencil, repetitive in nature. However, guided by titles often taken from the music itself, the images at the end of the process can be identifiable or suggestive of tangible things.

The drawings here feature the music of Yo La Tengo, Pixies, Outhud, Talking Heads, The Stooges, Neil Young, AC/DC, and others.