Line Drawing

Poklong Anading’s project, Line Drawing is a conceptual interrogation of the act of drawing.  The artist recorded the repetitive action of a pencil marking lines on a white wall, as he walked back and forth from one end of the room to another. As layers of black lines built up on the wall, a “drawing” was created.  The video explores drawing both as a process and as an object that is created by an artist. The performative and documentation capability of video adds dimensions of time and movement to the otherwise static images in drawings. The work won first prize in the Experimental Film category at the 12^th Gawad CCP Para Sa Alternatibong Peiikula (CCP Independent Film Awards) in 1999.

Anading explains the concept behind his first experiment in video as follows: “I want to approach the act of recording my thoughts and action by drawing lines on a wall while walking and capturing it on video. This repeats as it overlays the previous lines. The video captures the process. It explores different categories in art, from the simple gesture of walking to the act of remembering and forgetting. Walking becomes the act of writing, as words are acts and acts become words.”