draw_02, a performative action by Tomaz Hipólito

October 25, 2011 – 6:30 – 8:30pm
360 Court Street,11231 Brooklyn, New York

For draw_2, Residency Unlimited has invited Tomaz Hipólito to use its distinctive local, a deconsecrated church atrium as a venue for experimenting the relationships between object and space. draw_2 is the artist’s last intervention in New York completing an immersive six months residency. Whereas it is integral to Hipólito’s practice to continuously revisit series of works he develops, each new iteration (in this case draw_2 follows draw_1) retains its distinctiveness whilst partaking in the sum of the parts.

draw_2 begins with a simple prescription: the artist requests from closely engaged Residency Unlimited staff members to propose texts or publications that reflect his ongoing artistic and cultural investigations. Their selections, he specifies, shall work as points of departure for a set of simple actions that will articulate the framework of his performative exercise. For draw_2, the artist will (i) take measurements of the books and outline their shapes (ii) process corresponding digital images; (iii) project the resulting digital outlines within the distinct architectural features of a 19th century local. Whilst images merge and converge with their surroundings, on walls, columns, crevasses and corners, new shapes will emerge and disembody just as quickly as they appear and act as catalysts of the viewer’s senses and perceptions.

Whereas Tomaz’s body of work consists in different serial categories, his practice is non media specific with an increasingly performative inclination whether he makes photographs, drawings, films or sometimes even paints. In fact, the overarching binder to his practice is the assiduous pursuit of the exploration of the principle of “Interval” –which he defines as” the anxiety in the presence of absence”. With draw_2, the artist playfully experiments this notion of “in-between” within a site specific arena. As Book meets Building meets Image, boundaries collapse and new ones are created. It is through the unfolding of these apparent disconnects that our perceptual filters are challenged and that the possibility of everything that is known or imagined can change…

draw_2 and Tomaz Hipolito’s residency is made possible with support from, Banco Espirito Santo, PAUSA, VEXO, APPLETON SQUARE, and the AZAN art collection. Support is also made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.