DRAWING IN SPACE: Ruth Asawa

DRAWING IN SPACE: Ruth Asawa

Saturday, May 13th 2023

Live Class: 2pm-4pm (LONDON TIME)

+ 7 Days Recording Access, Donation Tickets, Taught by Karolina Glusiec and hosted by Frances Stanfield

LDG are excited to bring a brilliant new series of online classes with artist Karolina Głusiec – Drawing in Space.

In this class you will create a series of paper sculptures using paper, thread and wire and will look closely on how Ruth Asawa was working with shadows, movement and space in her inspirations and forms she would create. Looking close into organic universes reflected in Asawa’s Abstract and figurative works we will be making paper gardens of our own, making a floral – inspired piece and a spherical organic-based one.

Join to make your garden of stars that you can keep growing long after this class!

I am able to take a wire line and go into the air and define the air without stealing from anyone. A line can enclose and define space while letting the air remain air.

Ruth Asawa

This class is inspired by Ruth Asawa’s teaching work – she spent a lot of time working with children teaching them to utilize everyday materials into objects they could create and play with.

I had no intentions of going into sculpture but found that sculpture was just an extension of drawing.

Ruth Asawa

Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.

Ruth Asawa was a sculptor, draftswoman, painter, printmaker – pioneering artists and educator, who apart of own aspirations and growth chose to be a mother and educator and cared a lot about children’s need of joy and wonder, through learning and playing with art.

She was most known for her wire sculptures, resembling suspended gardens of organic geometrical forms. These sculptures are stunning for their beauty but also reflect certain feelings that she was facing at various times of her life: longing for safety, longing for freedom, longing for connection with close ones.

She studied at Black Mountain College where she was recognised through her talent and how she reflected the taught there ethos of being a part of a collective work of art, growing together by sharing and mutual understanding while making art. At the same time she was separated from her family, still dealing with imprisonment of herself and her family members and the intolerance she faced as an American- Japanese woman after the Pearl Harbour invasion.

Asawa’s work towards accessible art education was also her contribution towards art activism – empowering children from various socioeconomic backgrounds through art, collaboration and creating.

Her work also reflects the idea of seeds, gardening, flourishing – as her most well known wire sculptural work may refer to the state of beautiful flowers growing in total darkness into forms of brave beauty, during this class we will be exploring an idea of things that stimulate our improvement and creative growth.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Paper (lots!) of many kinds of thickness, tissue, sugar paper, printing paper, card, cartridge, scrap paper, newspapers and any long long long scraps of paper – as much and as big pieces you can find – anything that you have handy that feels interesting – anything that you want to use from your recycling bin is more than welcome – same as various sizes and colours.
• Scissors – think of big and small ones that will be easy to use with the varied paper selection that you have – make sure you find something reliable and comfortable for you to use during the class.
• Thread, twine, rope – you will need this to join together the paper elements you will be working with
• Thin garden wire – this one will help you to sculpt the more complex constructions you will make and will be helpful in making decisions of how you want to “direct” the paper
• A pair of scissors / cutters to cut the wire ( depending on the kind of wire that you use – some thin florist wire is ok to cut with scissors, so make sure you have materials that are manageable to work with, nothing too hard for you to work with.)
• Thin clear thread – fishing wire.
• Some water in a small dish

Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class. We suggest a donation of £20 (all of which goes to our tutors) however we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we may continue to offer our sessions on a donation basis.

You will receive a confirmation email and be able to access the event via your eventbrite “Online Event Page”. You can do this by signing into eventbrite using the email that you booked with.

(Please note that the recording can be viewed anytime within 7 days)

ABOUT THE TUTOR:

Karolina Glusiec-A multidisciplinary artist based in Deptford, south-east London, UK whose practice emerges from drawing and animation branching out into mixed media, structural and site specific objects and artworks. She is also a teacher and runs dept.con.temporary art gallery together with Jamie Temple from their flat in London. She won Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2012.

IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS THEN PLEASE EMAIL : londondrawinggroup@gmail.com

And that’s it!

We’re really looking forward to you joining us.

Love,

LDG

Bio Notes:

Biography Timeline: https://ruthasawa.com/life/

Article in Washington Post: “Is this the most beautiful show of the year? – https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/is-this-the-most-beautiful-show-of-the-year/2018/09/18/456c373e-bb65-11e8-9812-a389be6690af_story.html