Christine Taylor Patten

Christine Taylor Patten works with a crow quill pen and black ink on paper creating abstract, meditative drawings that explore time, movement and change by a focus on the turning of a plane. Created by the accumulation of tiny strokes—the movement of her wrist making a single mark—her drawings build up densities that actually reveal light as her strokes block out the whiteness of the paper.  This is evident in her monumental project macro/micro (begun in 1999) that pairs seven monumental drawings (from 2 to 7 metres), all titled with reference to John Lennon’s dream for a peaceful world in his song ‘Imagine‘, with 2000 micro drawings and related tangents, each only 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm in size. This massive drawing project reveals infinite possibilities for this simple protocol of seeing where each drawing takes her, from the geometric to the organic, from the formal to the hilarious, as they unexpectedly discover what the scientists and mathematicians who write about her work suggest echoes their understanding of the unplanned unfolding of the cosmos.

This catalogue was produced on the occasion of the 14th Istanbul Biennale, and includes an essay by celebrated art historian Griselda Pollock.