Drawing Out The Canal - The Film

DRAWING OUT THE CANAL was focused around a 4-day walking, drawing, talking residency along the entire length of the Kennet and Avon Canal, from Newbury to Bath. The project initiated and exchanged collaborative story-telling through drawing and engaging with histories along the towpaths. DRAWING OUT THE CANAL engaged with a variety of individuals along the 4-day route through activating the process of collecting graphite rubbings, as a way of engaging with the canal histories and generating layers of narrative around the locale. At Drawing Projects UK, I then examined the generated variety of rubbings, developing an immersive as well as smaller, intimate artworks from the ‘textures of history’ in relation to the 4-day walk. Drawing as a way of transporting to a place, it’s memory and the experiences surrounding it. The amassed rubbings were then interpreted in a number of ways, over a period of 4-days, in relation to the geography, history and narrative of the whole canal route, alongside exploring the spaces of Drawing Projects UK. The film shows the process as an instinctive and organic one, an evolution, interpreting the past, present and future visions of an important, historically and socially significant site and its interpretation. The process engages with the spaces and surfaces through the physical process of rubbings from the architecture, machinery, towpaths, gates and locks along the canal route. As part of the unveiling of the installation, I performed and interpreted the drawing through a performance with local musicians from Trowbridge.