Paper short abstract:

An insight into the transformative potentiality revealed when materials of drawing are exploited through a tactile engagement with those of etching. The multiplicity of approaches combined with the advantage of staged proofs offers rare concrete evidence of temporal changes to drawing.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present an insight into the tactile engagement enjoyed when drawing materials are exploited through the materiality of etching. The etcher who has drawing at the centre of their practice provides a fascinating case study; their enthusiasm for their materials takes their drawing fluently from paper to metal plate and close consideration of surface enables them to trace temporal progress. Ingold , writing about the textility of making, spoke of "the tactile and sensuous knowledge of line and surface that had guided practitioners through their varied and heterogeneous materials…"(2011:211) - a commentary which can be appropriately applied in this context. To illustrate this I will discuss the practice of Jason Hicklin RE whose material understanding of place and process create connections with social histories and, secondly, Ian Chamberlain ARE whose forensic investigation of surface describes a temporal appreciation of place. When drawing engages with etching all senses are awakened to the material processes; from the drag and glide of pencil on paper to the evocative smell of printing ink and the sticky resistance of wax on warm metal. The additional quality of etching is its ability to deliver concrete material evidence of the progression of a drawing by printing a state proof after each enthralling and revelatory process. Through drawing-as-etching haptic and tacit understanding facilitate an exploitation of concepts and materials, and, as such, its materiality is the appeal of this engaging form of expression.

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