Project Space, Unit 5 Studios, Norwich
"Changing Spaces" - Collaborative Drawing between Gaia Shaw and Sam Epps
I met Gaia outside the Unit 5 studios on a grey and very wet Tuesday morning. We went through the members’ entrance, I had never been through this way before and Gaia walked me around the studios. We settled in the kitchen for a moment over a cup of tea and discussed our ideas for the Late Shift and what we thought we might do. I had asked to come to Unit 5 because I find that the most effective way of creating new works is to be in a new place in a pressured time limit, and I intended to do something on this day in response to the Project Space, but had no idea what that would be.
Through our conversation, we came to realise that drawing was important to both of us. Gaia said that she had a roll of paper that she was intending to use at the studios, and invited me to draw with her on this paper, in response to the Project Space.
We chose some materials to work with. Gaia asked me what I liked to draw with; my response was that I only ever seem to draw with pencils. So we picked up inks, rollers, cue tips, oil pastels, charcoal, felt tips, tape and a pencil, as well as the large roll of paper. We considered where we might position the paper, on the wall, the floor, both? We decided that a stretch of floor that encapsulated the carpet, a small step and the tiled floor was interesting to us as it presented different textures to work on, so we rolled out approx 4 meters of the paper.
Starting at the “top” of the paper, Gaia and I worked on opposite lengths, facing each other. We made marks in response to the space. We kneeled or sat at the edge, stretching in front, but not being able to meet in the middle, as if the paper was a barrier. The heaters were only just getting going and I suppose that I felt quite anxious about what I might draw at first. Gaia worked with tape and ink, working on a large scale, bolder than me, marking out pipes and architectural features that she could trace on the wall behind me. I worked with a pencil, drawing the breezeblock outlines of the wall in front of me.
I decided not to look at the drawing at first, and to keep the line continuous. There felt to be a large physical gap between Gaia’s work and mine at first. We progressed along the paper, making an effort for our drawings to meet, but the paper was still preventing us.Our marks became more expressive and explorative, gentle conversation punctuated the silence and concentration.
The rain became harder, so vertical and fast that we could not see it out of the window, but only hear it on the roof. It created a tremendous atmosphere, I hadn’t heard rain this hard in a very long time, and the noise surrounded us completely. As we moved along the paper, a drip caught our attention. A spot in the roof was beginning to leak, creating a playful pitter-patter on the floor and a small puddle, Gaia fetched a bucket to collect the water. The plastic bucket amplified the drip, thud thud thud.Gaia cushioned this drumming with a cloth placed in the bucket, and we continued with the drawing.
Becoming more adventurous, we took off our shoes and moved across the paper, reaching further, standing and sitting on it.Our drawings became interlocked, and we worked back over the other ones marks, changing our materials as we moved along.Gaia used the ink roller to create a background that when I studied, echoed the texture of the bricks ahead of her. I moved further down the paper to trace the word “FRAGILE” that was taped along the step underneath the paper. By now, we had completely swapped sides and I liked how as we drew and spoke and learnt more about each other that our bodies crossed and we started to mimic each others drawing styles.
I was concentrating quite hard on my drawing, and in the corner of my eye noticed that Gaia was drawing me in the space, not just the space anymore. She did it almost effortlessly, capturing my shape very calmly as I wriggled around. The paper was well covered by this stage, and we worked back over the earlier drawings, Gaia becoming more abstract with her gestures whilst I leant towards drawing plug sockets and radiators as accurately as I could.
I think that we had been drawing for about an hour and a half when we decided that we had done enough. We signed and dated the drawing, and discussed taking it other places to continue. We tidied away the materials and left the studios to get some lunch.
Although we did not speak all that much, I feel that Gaia and I learnt a lot about each other’s practices from the experience and I enjoyed the closeness of working on a shared process with no set outcome.
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