An archive of direction

This is an archive of direction. Or more specifically an archive of the directional marks in the Borough Road collection. 

Anybody who has painted knows of the breathless moment when the brush meets the surface.

Cut out, assembled and arranged according to direction, the process of categorising and re-archiving the lines gives a new room for these painterly moments to exist. 

Collectivised and cut from any pictorial context but their own presence, the lines still seems to me to be powerful memories of the artists at work; their commitment, decisions and physical presence. 

Archive of Direction by Johanna Bolton

Detail of an Archive of Direction by Johanna Bolton

Johanna Bolton: An archive of made decisions

Contemporary artist Johanna Bolton is currently doing a residency at the Borough Road Gallery art store. You can follow her as she researches and develops a project for the gallery this fall. 

Bomberg wrote that ‘the virility of drawing lies in the immediate necessity to make decisions- with it departs the fears and the funk...’ 

I think this quality is very much evident in the decisive fast impasto lines in the art of the Borough Group.

Bomberg also wrote “I approach drawing solely for structure” - I will try the same but from the other side, as a sculptor looking for the instruction for structure in the drawings. 

This week I am buying armature wire and working at drawing out those structural lines into 3-dimensions again. 

Revisiting Bomberg in the Borough - an alternative audio tour

Today we are revisiting the gallery commissioned audio tour by English playwright, poet, and activist John Constable. See our Instagram stories as we reflect on the changes that have happened in the borough over the last few years.