Morfill, S.E., 2015.

Each person draw a line differently!

On Line (MOMA, 2010-11) and Dance/Draw (ICA, Boston, 2011) characterise the 'moment of drawing and dance' identified by Cornelia Butler at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century (2010). Where Trisha Brown's movements leave an inscriptive trace, or a virtual line describes the motion of a point on William Forsythe's body, the line in 100-metre line drawing moves beyond being a trace of movement, becoming instead an active material agent in collaboration with the dancer. The adhesive vinyl undergoes a transformative translation from its compact rectangular configuration into a dynamic wall drawing made of fragmented, curling and twisting lines.
Each person draw a line differently! (2015) comprises ten adhesive vinyl rectangles, each with the potential to unravel 100 metres of line. It is not only the translation of line from one state to another that is at stake, but by proposing a participatory work in the specific context of an Italian venue (the Palazzo della Cultura, Catania), the question of interpretation in relation to language also arises. Lawrence Venuti identifies the essential nature of translation as a process of interpretation in which one amongst a multiplicity of semantic possibilities is provisionally fixed (2008). Both interlingual translation and drawing (also as a means of translation), underscore the contingency of meaning. A digitally drawn line becomes a cut vinyl line and an instruction to participate, written in English is interpreted first by an Italian translator, then as an Italian text by those who choose to respond to the inclusive imperative in the title. Through this process of audience interaction lines are drawn out into new unanticipated forms.
The line, both provisional and mediated using technology, also has its own agency. As such it disrupts the notion that the drawn line is necessarily the direct trace of the drawer, to suggest a broader definition of what contemporary drawing can be.