'A thousand yard stare’
The expression describes one of shell shock's symptoms - that of the numb stare. It's been referred to since the ancient Greeks, for instance Sophocles describes the traumatised soldiers in combatant stress, their vacant stares as a consequence of war. It is now most commonly associated with Vietnam veterans. But as a way of thinking about drawing it implies the maker's detached, disassociation from subject matter, or aesthetic judgement in favour of deadpan, automatic decision making. It also suggests tenacity in the face of odds.
Drawing's democracy is prevalent in contemporary art practice, its non hierarchical status is well documented since Mel Bochner's 1966 exhibition,'Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art', when Bochner displayed four identical folders of 100 photocopied drawings on plinths in the exhibition space at the School of Visual Art, NY. These works included the diagram of the photocopier, music notation by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, draughtsman's plans by architects and engineers, Tippetts, Abbett, McCarthy and Stratton, scientific diagrams from the magazine Scientific American and artist's drawings for instance, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse.
 The selection of subject matter can become the artist's nightmare, damn the search, as so much neurotic hang ups, its guilt ridden anxiety is predicated on desire for meaning validated by external sources. Released from this by the numbed stare is when anything goes, and drawing's leveler serves need like I eat like I shit like I piss. Drawing the line, between types or needs or functions becomes academic, and suggests questions like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. What of the street operatives' van marked at the rear, 'caution line painting', to warn drivers that yellow road marking lines are being put down, is this yellow line on the tarmac, painting or drawing?
Perhaps contingent on the idea of a thousand yard stare in drawing is an insouciance that can be seen in much contemporary drawing practice and it is where apparent disregard for seriousness leads to celebration of trivia, the absurd, the overlooked or the disregarded. Refuting the serious focuses attention back to it, or its lack, like the two magnets’ repulsion underscores the energy and illuminates itself. And then there is the sheer attentiveness to method in some practices that belies the time taken for such a task. And what a feat it becomes. There is dogged repetition in the banality of the action when method is celebrated.
In the 1990's a group from Slough called their band 'thousand yard stare'. Their songs made oblique comment on society's values with titles such as 'spindrift', '00 a e t' (meaning the score in a football match, nil nil at extra time), 'from nowhere to somewhere', 'driving blind', 'stars & roadmaps' & 'Mappamundi'. They pinpoint an attitude of wilful persistence in the face of dejection whether it is economic or political.
© Jo Melvin December 2009 |
Catalogue Essay for the Exhibition A THOUSAND YARD STARE at Art Space Gallery 12 Feb – 13 March 2010