Sketch Book for the Artist

ABSTRACT

LINES

Process and Harmony

SOMETIMES A DRAWN LINE sings on the surface of its support.

Sometimes it smolders like a deep shadow. It can proclaim

mood, silence, and sensitivity with its thickness and pressure

of touch. A line can be finished in a second, or, as Twombly

shows us opposite, it can keep reforming through the inherent

repetition of a process. A Neolithic chalk tablet bears cut lines

that were slowly carved. Below, Mamoru Abe prepares an

image that will appear through the chemistry of iron, water,

and patient watching. Abe's physical drawing is a sculptural

installation. Damp Japanese paper was laid over carefully

arranged iron bars. Moisture produced rust, staining red-

brown lines into the white surface. Five forged steel shapes,

akin to stones in a Zen garden, sit in silent harmony, quoting

ink marks on a page. Twombly's mesmeric wax line worked

over house paint is like a signature, rhythmically engaged with

itself, scrolling across the canvas in an intimate crescendo.

MAMORU ABE

Japanese sculptor and installation artist, and Assistant

Professor of Fine Art at Fukuoka University. Abe

works with materials such as soil, forged steel, brass,

ice, salt, and plaster in galleries and landscapes. He

travels widely to research ancient sacred sites.

Lines, tone, and texture Pillars of the gallery are made part

of this drawing by their inclusion in the paper. This amplifies

their bracing separation of the floor from the ceiling. Iron rods

reaching from beneath the paper rest within the framelike

rim of floor space. Changes in tone, texture, and temperature

between paper, iron, and wood are also part of the work.

The Physical Space

1990

30x 30 ft (914x914 cm)

MAMORU ABE