Illustration as Documentation

Searched the library for work on diaries. I was drawn towards a section of the illustrational books which seemed to be presentations of observations made on a journey or more specifically, objects seen along that journey.


The first book I looked at is 'An Inward Bird Sets Out On A Journey Of Drawing' by Tsukiyama Ikuyo (who is the writer and the artist throughout).


In a gallery, she exhibited a card which said "I would go to your place to do drawing. Anywhere you want. Best to see it by yourself, but it's OK to see in couples." with her address. She was inspired by dancers, performers and musicians who do their work with their bodies, ignoring time and space and she was fascinated by their detachment about preserving forms. (Tsukiyama 2002: 2)


She then travelled to perform to 20 people at 16 different places in Japan. The intention was to do something she could only do with her body, such as drawing the air. "Drawing of air is not actually drawing on a canvas or paper, but listening quietly to the feeling, or sensations that can't be tasted anywhere else. It's the time to see subtle variety of atmosphere between me and my spectator." (Tsukiyama 2002: 2)


Although really intriguing, it seems clear that there is a huge contradiction just by the existence of a book about these performances. It says 'This is a book based on these performances and their records.' Surely then these performances have a form as they are represented in this physical book with photos and text.

Here is documentation of the date, time and location of the performance. It shows a photo of the artist's arm holding a stone on string, the angle of which implies a swinging movement which presumably featured in the performance. The sky is blue, of which it could be assumed that it is a sunny day which has connotations of happiness and relaxation. Also, the composition of the images on this page are very simple, clean cut with an angular line forming at the bottom of each. It has a very limited cool colour palette.
All these things give the viewer clues about the performance, which I find a really interesting concept. But I can't help feel that in documenting and illustrating the performances, this creates a physical form for something which is apparently formless.


I find this interesting as it reminds me of my visual diary. I am also documenting actions and emotions, which are formless. I have so far found that my Visual Digital Diary works best when it is summed up and presented in a simplistic format containing only the most important elements from each day. From this book, I feel I can take the simplistic layout and later use the interesting composition on the page to inspire mine (if I decide to create a book from it, which I am now considering).


The Next book I studied is 'Now to Touch What' by Eve Sonneman and Lawrence Weiner. Lawrence Weiner is a conceptual artist whose work is usually typographical. From researching him, I have absorbed many quote from him about art which I find inspiring and thought-provoking.


In this book, he collaborates with the photographer Eve Sonneman by marrying together his text stamps and her photographs.

As they are each presented in pairs, I instantly began to try and observed the comparison between them. In addition to this, I pondered over the relation of each photo to the text it has been stamped with. Some were immediately connected, like the one above, but all the photos use their text to give the viewer another thing to think about in connection with the picture.

This left page, a medium shot of the back of a man walking down a street, which is stamped with 'PARKING &', makes me closer inspect the man's number jumper and relate this to his location on what looks like a reasonably quiet  city street. 'PACKING', on the next page, is a panned out full length shot of the man which brought my attention to the bags he is carrying and wonder about what's in them and where he's taking them with this apparent stroll of his.


I'm really interested by the placement of text upon these photos, which give them a new dimension to consider and can change how the viewer feels about the photo. I like how these can be ambiguous and only suggestive. I shall consider using text like this within my work to suggest to the viewer more about my feelings about the day's events.