Darkness Never Lasts – Collective Drawings

In November 2023 we started a monthly residency with Cos Chapman mixing live electronic improvisation and an open drawing session presided by visual artist/performer Jo Roberts in her role as The Librarian. About At the beginning the idea was to draw figures in movement using charcoal on large pieces of paper laid on the floor. But as soon as we started, everybody forgot about it and the general approach was to draw free lines and improvised sketches that went through the session evolving into interconnected compositions. The first group of collective work was astonishing, where large masses of darkness surrounded small groups of human figures, dying birds, poetic forms and hands in despair. Since then in our monthly sessions, we have been intertwining our hands and charcoal sticks with those who have joined us, every time different people, some more regular than others, sometimes just passers by who drew a symbol or a stroke and left. We have been walking, scratching, watering, tearing and moving on and around the papers, interfering with whatever lines the others were conducting, playing with any spontaneous expression, and over all, we have been feeling guided by Chapman’s hypnotic sound and the presence of a communal deity. Without being the aim of our gatherings, somehow we can see that the suffering of the Palestine people has been the spirit which probably went through us evolving from the darkness of their situation towards a more joyful realm. And that’s how one day we crossed the portal of time and memory, accompanied by that green and pink shadow that didn’t belong to us. The vortex of music gently swallowed us without us noticing its strength. With coloured lines we began to draw the texture of the ground, in silence or emitting conical sounds, and we kept folding ourselves between the curves of the skin of a unique and unknown hand. We want to keep drawing hope for the end of the Palestinian genocide, the current Israel occupation and apartheid. We want to believe that a human, peaceful and equalitarian solution for Palestinians will prevail. So now and then, we select some of the collective drawings and exhibit them, always and all under the same price, £200, donating half of the proceeds to Medical Aid for Palestine M.A.P. So far, with this scheme and other fundraising events, we have achieved £8,500 donations. We want to pursue the cause until the light is freed. If you like what we do, just help us. Read more Toggle Painting Drawing