The gesture within matter: Drawing through material

This research project offers a unique contribution to contemporary drawing practice and research at the intersection with the field of New Materialism. Using a framework for drawing that questions the binaries of the active maker and passive matter, my research explores the capacity of matter to draw.

The thesis applies the central identifier of drawing, namely a gesture that leaves a trace, to the traditional material apparatus of drawing alongside those ordinarily outside its remit. Using established constructs from the history and theory of drawing, the project encourages an imaginative shift that embraces the drawings already being made by the flux of materials.

Through close analysis of my own and other artists work, this research examines the effects of drawings extended repertoire and opens up relationships among and within materials. By adopting an expanded definition of drawing as an active process and approach rather than a medium confined by specific tools or materials, I argue that the gesture of drawing emerges not solely from human activity but also from the actions and qualities of materials themselves. The project asserts that there is gesture within matter.