Excavating the Past - Drawing on Archaeology on 15 December 2022
Join us for this online Drawing Discussion: Excavating the Past - Drawing on Archaeology with artist and writer, Sarah Casey; archaeologist, academic, writer, curator and artist, Fay Stevens; artist and postgraduate student, Helena Czeczenikow; and Anita Taylor, artist, curator and educator. This Drawing Discussion will be chaired by art historian and curator, Gary Sangster. The event is held in association with the exhibition, Emergency! Sarah Casey, on show at Drawing Projects UK until 28 January 2023. Book for the event here.
Sarah Casey is a visual artist and researcher working at the cusp of drawing and sculpture. Her drawings exploring the limits of visibility and material existence arise from working alongside researchers from other fields, ranging from archaeology to astrophysics. Solo exhibitions of her work have been at Kensington Palace, The Bowes Museum and most recently at Ryerson University, Toronto. She is Senior Lecturer in Drawing and Installation at Lancaster University, UK where she is Director for the School of Fine Art. Sarah was a Royal Drawing School Scottish artist-in-residence in 2020 and a Visiting Research Fellow at The Henry Moore Institute from 2020-21. Her current work explores the provocations of glacial archaeology. With Rebecca Birch and Jen Southern she is co-founder of the Rocky Climates network bringing together artists concerned with the mobilities and temporal, spatial, cultural instabilities of landscapes in uncertain times.
Fay Stevens is an archaeologist, academic, writer, curator and artist. Her work is a process of excavation; an unravelling of layers of time, memory and substance. It is a philosophical enquiry and experience, concerned with sustainability, trace, elements, the senses, inscription and corporeal interplay – where walking and materiality is her primary methodology. She draws upon and specialises in the philosophical school of phenomenology as a critical and performative lens through which she works. Fay is a trained archaeological illustrator with a developed practice in conceptual drawing. She has held artistic residences in England, Scotland, Hungary and Spain, curated visual and performance art events at Arnolfini (Bristol), Salisbury (UK), Corsham (UK) and Bath (UK) and exhibited her work in the UK, Berlin, Sweden and Japan. Fay is Adjunct Associate Professor in Archaeology and Sustainability Studies at University of Notre Dame and contributes as guest lecturer for the MA in Cultural Heritage and Resource Management at University of Winchester and the MSc in Applied Landscape Archaeology at University of Oxford, as well as a range of courses in archaeology for Oxford Department for Continuing Education. She also teaches research/writing workshops for postgraduate students at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London), The University of Western Macedonia, and Oxford Brookes University. Fay has just completed co-leading a British Council funded educational transdisciplinary project ‘Reading Water: A Contemplative Ecology of the Rivers Nile (Egypt) and Thames (UK)’ as part of COP27.
Helena Czeczenikow is an artist working primarily in drawing. She graduated from Lancaster University in 2022 and is currently a student of the Contemporary Art and Archaeology MA course at Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands. Her art practice focuses on the relationship between the landscape and people, investigating their connections with the past and present.
Anita Taylor is an artist, curator and educator. Drawing is central to her practice - in the studio, in education, research, public engagement, as a writer and curator – and advocacy for drawing as a vital means of communication, expression and investigation underpins this work. Anita is Founding Director of the international Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize annual exhibition (1994-present) and established Drawing Projects UK in 2009. She was Artist-in-Residence at Durham Cathedral [1987-88]; Cheltenham Fellow in Painting [1988-89]; and Artist-in-Residence with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service with the National Art School in Sydney [2004]. Her work has been widely exhibited in the UK and internationally with recent solo exhibitions including: Young Gallery, Salisbury [2018]; The Customs House, South Shields [2017]; William Wright Artists Projects, Sydney [2014]; The Drawing Room, Sydney [2011]; Peter Pinson Gallery, Sydney [2009]; The Drawing Gallery [2009, 2004]. Recent group shows include Kazı İzleri / Lines of Site in Istanbul that toured to Dundee, Barcelona and Aksaray [2022], for which she made a series of large drawings in response to the Neolithic settlement of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia as part of an EU-funded project; Jerwood Gallery, Hastings [2016, 2014]; The Global Centre for Drawing, Langford120, Melbourne [2018, 2013, 2011]; Victoria & Albert Museum [2009]. Awarded the Malvern Award for Drawing [1993]; Drawing Award, Hunting Art Prize [1999]; and First Prize, Hunting Art Prize [2000]. She was first made Professor of Fine Art in 2002, and is the Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee (2019-present) and formerly Executive Dean of Bath School of Art and Design at Bath Spa University [2013-19]; Director & Chief Executive Officer of the National Art School, Sydney, Australia [2009-13]; Dean, Wimbledon College of Art & Director, The Centre for Drawing, University of the Arts London [2006-09]; Vice Principal of Wimbledon School of Art [2004-06]. Her drawings are held in private and public collections including Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Jerwood Foundation, National Art School Sydney, V&A.
Gary Sangster is an art historian and curator, and Co-Director of Drawing Projects UK. He has international curatorial experience as Chief Curator of the National Art Gallery, New Zealand; Curator, The New Museum, New York City; and as Director of the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore; Director of the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art; Director of Headlands, San Francisco; Director of Artspace, Sydney; Interim Director of Arts Catalyst – Art, Science and Technology, London; and as a Trustee, Arnolfini, Bristol. Education appointments include: Dean, Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University, USA. Key exhibitions curated include: Two World’s Collide, Sydney, Australia; The Decade Show, NYC, USA; Breathing Time, New Orleans, USA; Judith Barry for the US Pavilion (Grand Prize), Cairo Biennale, Egypt; and touring survey exhibitions of Komar & Melamid, Mary Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, and Genevieve Cadieux. He was co-curator, with Firat Arapoglu, of Kazı İzleri / Lines of Site in Istanbul that toured to Dundee, Barcelona and Aksaray [2022].
