Books by Joe Graham
Graham, J. Serial Drawing: Space, Time and the Art Object. London: Bloomsbury, 2021
"Serial Drawing offers a timely and rigorous exploration of a relatively little-researched art fo... more "Serial Drawing offers a timely and rigorous exploration of a relatively little-researched art form. Serial drawings – artworks that are presented as singular works but are made up of distributed parts – are studied in fresh, contemporary terms with a novel philosophical approach, emphasizing both the way in which this unique form of visual art exists in the world, and how it is encountered by the beholder.
Inspired by the quadruple framework of Graham Harman's object-oriented ontology, Joe Graham explores a variety of serial drawings according to the idea that, in being serially arrayed, such artworks constitute a rather particular form of art object: one which is both unified yet pluralised, visible yet withdrawn. Examining works by artists such as Alexei Jawlensky, Ellsworth Kelly, Hanne Darboven, Jill Baroff and Stefana McClure, Graham interrogates the manner in which serial drawings are able to be appreciated by the viewer who beholds them in object-oriented terms. This task is carried out by paying attention to the manner in which three tensions – space, time and seriality – emerge for consideration within the beholders performative encounter with the work: an encounter which is 'seen serially', and which the medium of drawing specifically directs their attention towards."
Journal Articles by Joe Graham
Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology, 2023
AAM version attached. Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology prioritises aesthetics as first ph... more AAM version attached. Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology prioritises aesthetics as first philosophy, and finds increasing interest from those working across art, architecture and the humanities in general. This article tests the application of Harman’s ideas by applying them to a thorny issue related to the domain of serial art, and serially developed drawing in particular. The issue concerns the productive role of the beholder in constituting the serial artwork as a unified thing, wherein it appears manifestly deeper than the sum of its physical parts. Referring to an artwork produced by contemporary artist Stefana McClure, I build upon prior propositions on serial art put forward by Christy Mag Uidhir and Nicolas de Warren to make the case for seeing serially. This uses Harman’s understanding of aesthetics to claim that imagined iterations constitute an integral element to serial drawing, brought into play when the beholder reflects upon the loose relationship between the array of qualities the artwork palpably presents and its withdrawn reality as a unified object.
Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2018
AAM version attached. For the published article please use the DOI link.
This article describe... more AAM version attached. For the published article please use the DOI link.
This article describes a piece of practice-led drawing research titled: Nine Drawings (2016). Treated as a first-person investigation combining serial drawing, Bergsonian philosophy and a postphenomenological methodology drawn from the work of Don Ihde (2012), the purpose of this piece is to test the idea of research through drawing by seeking to represent the enigmatic Bergsonian notion that time acts as a force (Guerlac 2006).
Journal for Artistic Research, 2017
Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice, 2016
This article presents a brief report of a first-person investigation through drawing, discussing ... more This article presents a brief report of a first-person investigation through drawing, discussing how serially developed drawing can be understood to express the becoming of 'now' – the present moment in time. By employing a phenomenological approach, the notion that drawing expresses this idea is treated as an assumption, meaning a hypothesis to be tested through practice and theory combined. This occurs as part of my developing research practice, where I look to ‘perform philosophy in a non-philosophical way’ (Emoe 2014). Rather than treat art as an object for philosophy, I use philosophy to question a thought that I, as a practitioner, believe is immanent to drawing as form of art – that drawing itself is a form of becoming, based on the intentionality underpinning the temporal experience of drawing.
Journal of Visual Art Practice, 2015
AAM version attached. For the published version, please use the DOI link.
This article present... more AAM version attached. For the published version, please use the DOI link.
This article presents a particular aspect of a recent investigation through drawing. This was set up with the aim of exploring the potential for the drawn line to ‘record’ (re-present) the present moment as it passed. The aspect discussed here concerns the analysis of rhythm to facilitate the understanding of one ‘recording’ the other. The so called ‘moving present’ is the present moment of time we experience ourselves to live within. Time can be understood as either cyclical or linear in view of its rhythms, yet within the unified present as duration we subjectively experience time to flow by, one moment appearing after the next. Using Henri Lefebvre’s criteria for what he termed rhythmanalysis, this article will outline an initial theoretical argument for how rhythm within the spatially drawn line and rhythm within the experience of the temporally extended present can be understood. By ‘thinking about the phenomenon’ (phenomeno-logy) of space and time together in this way, my aim is to present drawings that combined this theory into practice, produced in response to an analysis of these rhythms.
Book Chapters by Joe Graham
Body, Space and Place in Collective and Collaborative Drawing: Drawing Conversations II, 2020
Artist Books by Joe Graham
Graham, J. The Being of Drawing. London: Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory, 2021
A Heideggerian inspired ontology of drawing, describing the Being of drawing as becoming. By empl... more A Heideggerian inspired ontology of drawing, describing the Being of drawing as becoming. By employing a blend of practical and theoretical elements - such as the diagram, the Heideggerian Vorhanden/Zuhanden split within presence and the four-sided diagrammatic structure synonymous with Graham Harman’s OOO - this book claims that drawing operates as an endless fourfold interplay of Acts, Object, Ideas and Promise. Available to buy via the attached link.
Graham, J. (Ed.). Anchor. London: Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory, 2015
Edited by Joe Graham, ANCHOR presents fourteen responses to the question: What is an outline? Giv... more Edited by Joe Graham, ANCHOR presents fourteen responses to the question: What is an outline? Given as a form of practice-led research formed across drawing, print, photography and text, ANCHOR questions the idea that the phenomenon of outline can be defined in the traditional sense. Instead, ANCHOR poses an alternative mode of reply: anchoring it according to the manner in which the phenomenon of outline 'appears'. Rather than present a singular answer that defines a narrow understanding, ANCHOR seeks to outline a wider interpretation across a range of contributions. With contributions from: Andrew Hewish, Chantal Faust, Claude Heath, Deborah Harty, Gemma Anderson, Gordon Shrigley, Kelly Chorpening, Paul McDevitt, Phil Sawdon, Steven Dickie, Thomas Falstad, Tom Morton and Virginia Verran. The book is available to purchase via the attached link.
Graham, J. Flea. London: Centre for Recent Drawing, 2012
Artist monograph. A series of 150 transfer drawings presenting an imaginary development of Willia... more Artist monograph. A series of 150 transfer drawings presenting an imaginary development of William Blake's "Ghost of a Flea" (1819-20). Includes an introduction by Andrew Hewish of C4RD, an essay by curator Dominic Rich, and an artist interview with Tom Morton, contributing editor of frieze magazine. The book is available to purchase via the attached link.
Catalogue Essays by Joe Graham
This paper is an edited version of a catalogue essay commissioned by Marmalade Publishers of Visu... more This paper is an edited version of a catalogue essay commissioned by Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory in 2016, for a bookwork titled White Noise. The bookwork evolved from a collaborative residency and subsequent exhibition by artists Greig Burgoyne and Rossella Emanuele at the Centre for Recent Drawing, London. The essay attempts to unpack the exhibition as it was presented in the gallery space from the viewers perspective, using a phenomenological approach to reflect on the place (site) of drawing as a collaborative, on-going performance.
Doctoral Thesis by Joe Graham
How is a process of serial drawing understood to record the phenomenological ‘stream of conscious... more How is a process of serial drawing understood to record the phenomenological ‘stream of consciousness’ that underpins it? This research question emerges from a hypothesis driving the research: that when considered as a form of expression which ‘speaks’ in a particular way (Tormey, 2007), drawing re-presents (‘records’) the stream of consciousness underpinning it in a rather fundamental manner. The purpose of this first person, practice-led research is to question how this hypothesis is understood, treating it as an assumption to be tested via practice and theory combined. Within the research this hypothesis is linked to both the wider assumption that ‘drawing records thought’ (Rosand, 2002) and to the contemporary idea that drawing is a form of ‘perpetual becoming’ (Hoptman, 2002; de Zegher & Butler, 2010) given the temporality which underpins the act of drawing. To help facilitate investigation of the hypothesis, the assumption that ‘drawing records thought’ is duly suspended (bracketed) for the duration of the research, allowing the structure and process of serially developed drawing (Chavez, 2004) in conjunction with first-person methods for approaching phenomenal consciousness (Varela & Shear, 1999; Depraz, 1999) to investigate it in practical terms.
The significance of the research resides in a scrutiny of the drawing process, undertaken in close relation to Husserl’s (1931/2012; 1950/1999) Phenomenology. As a result, the phenomenon of drawing is re-described as a self-temporalizing phenomenon, emphasising how the appearance of drawing (noun) not only re-presents the prior act of drawing (verb) which produced it, but also provides the practitioner with a look ahead, indicating the hope and expectation of drawings not yet made. This claim emerges via the specific manner in which my serially developed drawings demonstrate re-presenting the ‘streaming’ of consciousness described (in Husserlian terms) as the self-temporalization of consciousness, experienced within the duration of now. This phenomenological description of how drawing operates builds upon Rawson’s (1969/1987) statement regarding the ‘special charm’ of drawing - the underlying quality of movement that drawings (noun) exhibit on the basis they were drawn. Husserl’s protentional focus on ‘hope’ and ‘expectation’ (de Warren, 2009) allows the research to expand upon this idea, describing the underlying movement within drawing as a form of self-temporalization that also points ahead to what is not yet drawn. This forward looking, practitioner centred claim is intended to compliment the focus on ‘trace’ and ‘memory’ that a proportion of the current critical discourse on drawing remains engaged with (Newman M, 1996; Tormey, 2007; Newman & de Zegher, 2003; Derrida J, 1993).
Interviews by Joe Graham
Studio International, 2016
This is an interview between myself and Studio International editor Janet McKenzie, on the topic ... more This is an interview between myself and Studio International editor Janet McKenzie, on the topic of my recent book, ANCHOR. ANCHOR was published by Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory, London, in 2015.
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Books by Joe Graham
Inspired by the quadruple framework of Graham Harman's object-oriented ontology, Joe Graham explores a variety of serial drawings according to the idea that, in being serially arrayed, such artworks constitute a rather particular form of art object: one which is both unified yet pluralised, visible yet withdrawn. Examining works by artists such as Alexei Jawlensky, Ellsworth Kelly, Hanne Darboven, Jill Baroff and Stefana McClure, Graham interrogates the manner in which serial drawings are able to be appreciated by the viewer who beholds them in object-oriented terms. This task is carried out by paying attention to the manner in which three tensions – space, time and seriality – emerge for consideration within the beholders performative encounter with the work: an encounter which is 'seen serially', and which the medium of drawing specifically directs their attention towards."
Journal Articles by Joe Graham
This article describes a piece of practice-led drawing research titled: Nine Drawings (2016). Treated as a first-person investigation combining serial drawing, Bergsonian philosophy and a postphenomenological methodology drawn from the work of Don Ihde (2012), the purpose of this piece is to test the idea of research through drawing by seeking to represent the enigmatic Bergsonian notion that time acts as a force (Guerlac 2006).
https://jar-online.net/exposition/abstract/anchorage-phenomenology-outline
This article presents a particular aspect of a recent investigation through drawing. This was set up with the aim of exploring the potential for the drawn line to ‘record’ (re-present) the present moment as it passed. The aspect discussed here concerns the analysis of rhythm to facilitate the understanding of one ‘recording’ the other. The so called ‘moving present’ is the present moment of time we experience ourselves to live within. Time can be understood as either cyclical or linear in view of its rhythms, yet within the unified present as duration we subjectively experience time to flow by, one moment appearing after the next. Using Henri Lefebvre’s criteria for what he termed rhythmanalysis, this article will outline an initial theoretical argument for how rhythm within the spatially drawn line and rhythm within the experience of the temporally extended present can be understood. By ‘thinking about the phenomenon’ (phenomeno-logy) of space and time together in this way, my aim is to present drawings that combined this theory into practice, produced in response to an analysis of these rhythms.
Book Chapters by Joe Graham
https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/music-dance/body-space-and-place-in-collective,jill-journeaux-9781527541962
With thanks to Jill Baroff Studio, NY, and Bartha Contemporary, London, for kind permission to use images of Jill Baroff's work.
Artist Books by Joe Graham
Catalogue Essays by Joe Graham
Doctoral Thesis by Joe Graham
The significance of the research resides in a scrutiny of the drawing process, undertaken in close relation to Husserl’s (1931/2012; 1950/1999) Phenomenology. As a result, the phenomenon of drawing is re-described as a self-temporalizing phenomenon, emphasising how the appearance of drawing (noun) not only re-presents the prior act of drawing (verb) which produced it, but also provides the practitioner with a look ahead, indicating the hope and expectation of drawings not yet made. This claim emerges via the specific manner in which my serially developed drawings demonstrate re-presenting the ‘streaming’ of consciousness described (in Husserlian terms) as the self-temporalization of consciousness, experienced within the duration of now. This phenomenological description of how drawing operates builds upon Rawson’s (1969/1987) statement regarding the ‘special charm’ of drawing - the underlying quality of movement that drawings (noun) exhibit on the basis they were drawn. Husserl’s protentional focus on ‘hope’ and ‘expectation’ (de Warren, 2009) allows the research to expand upon this idea, describing the underlying movement within drawing as a form of self-temporalization that also points ahead to what is not yet drawn. This forward looking, practitioner centred claim is intended to compliment the focus on ‘trace’ and ‘memory’ that a proportion of the current critical discourse on drawing remains engaged with (Newman M, 1996; Tormey, 2007; Newman & de Zegher, 2003; Derrida J, 1993).
Interviews by Joe Graham
Inspired by the quadruple framework of Graham Harman's object-oriented ontology, Joe Graham explores a variety of serial drawings according to the idea that, in being serially arrayed, such artworks constitute a rather particular form of art object: one which is both unified yet pluralised, visible yet withdrawn. Examining works by artists such as Alexei Jawlensky, Ellsworth Kelly, Hanne Darboven, Jill Baroff and Stefana McClure, Graham interrogates the manner in which serial drawings are able to be appreciated by the viewer who beholds them in object-oriented terms. This task is carried out by paying attention to the manner in which three tensions – space, time and seriality – emerge for consideration within the beholders performative encounter with the work: an encounter which is 'seen serially', and which the medium of drawing specifically directs their attention towards."
This article describes a piece of practice-led drawing research titled: Nine Drawings (2016). Treated as a first-person investigation combining serial drawing, Bergsonian philosophy and a postphenomenological methodology drawn from the work of Don Ihde (2012), the purpose of this piece is to test the idea of research through drawing by seeking to represent the enigmatic Bergsonian notion that time acts as a force (Guerlac 2006).
https://jar-online.net/exposition/abstract/anchorage-phenomenology-outline
This article presents a particular aspect of a recent investigation through drawing. This was set up with the aim of exploring the potential for the drawn line to ‘record’ (re-present) the present moment as it passed. The aspect discussed here concerns the analysis of rhythm to facilitate the understanding of one ‘recording’ the other. The so called ‘moving present’ is the present moment of time we experience ourselves to live within. Time can be understood as either cyclical or linear in view of its rhythms, yet within the unified present as duration we subjectively experience time to flow by, one moment appearing after the next. Using Henri Lefebvre’s criteria for what he termed rhythmanalysis, this article will outline an initial theoretical argument for how rhythm within the spatially drawn line and rhythm within the experience of the temporally extended present can be understood. By ‘thinking about the phenomenon’ (phenomeno-logy) of space and time together in this way, my aim is to present drawings that combined this theory into practice, produced in response to an analysis of these rhythms.
https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/music-dance/body-space-and-place-in-collective,jill-journeaux-9781527541962
With thanks to Jill Baroff Studio, NY, and Bartha Contemporary, London, for kind permission to use images of Jill Baroff's work.
The significance of the research resides in a scrutiny of the drawing process, undertaken in close relation to Husserl’s (1931/2012; 1950/1999) Phenomenology. As a result, the phenomenon of drawing is re-described as a self-temporalizing phenomenon, emphasising how the appearance of drawing (noun) not only re-presents the prior act of drawing (verb) which produced it, but also provides the practitioner with a look ahead, indicating the hope and expectation of drawings not yet made. This claim emerges via the specific manner in which my serially developed drawings demonstrate re-presenting the ‘streaming’ of consciousness described (in Husserlian terms) as the self-temporalization of consciousness, experienced within the duration of now. This phenomenological description of how drawing operates builds upon Rawson’s (1969/1987) statement regarding the ‘special charm’ of drawing - the underlying quality of movement that drawings (noun) exhibit on the basis they were drawn. Husserl’s protentional focus on ‘hope’ and ‘expectation’ (de Warren, 2009) allows the research to expand upon this idea, describing the underlying movement within drawing as a form of self-temporalization that also points ahead to what is not yet drawn. This forward looking, practitioner centred claim is intended to compliment the focus on ‘trace’ and ‘memory’ that a proportion of the current critical discourse on drawing remains engaged with (Newman M, 1996; Tormey, 2007; Newman & de Zegher, 2003; Derrida J, 1993).