Petrine Vinje
On drawing over a concept: the feeling of having swallowed something and the withdrawal of my eyes
I organized this work with some limitations to myself, first and foremost with the aim of being able to leave the state of conscious thought, and then see what happens. The preconditions were as such: 1) Draw with ink and pen/ pen split 2) Use only one colour 3) choose between a set of lines already known 4) Draw on the screen-printed paper. 4) Before you start, contemplate on one concept or word that you are questioning.
When I see the shape of the white outer form coming closer, I know it is something I need to take into consideration: when will I stop to draw so that I get the shape that I want? At this moment it works fine. I have reached a kind of flow and a feeling of secureness. It feels like as if I am secure now. Everything is working now. At this point something happens with my gaze. It feels like the eyes withdraw in a way. So, I am not focusing completely on the line nor the tool, but I see the pen and the fingers and the lines as if in a blur. And I am doing the same movements, and the drawing is starting to take shape... The way I look on the shape itself, on the lines that I am drawing. It is just as if… well, I have already made all the decisions, although I have not and the flow is there, and I can just go on without taking any more considerations. There is no need to make choices. I am feeling okay with what I am doing. This is something that I say to myself: "this is working" or "this works".
It feels like something that happens here in around the head, in location of my throat and my eyes. In an internal square from my eyes, through the neck and to the hands touching the paper. I can see my hand that holds the pen, the hand and the fingers are working together. So, it is not the pen that is doing what it should do, but it is just as much pressure and the lightness that comes with the hand. And how the hand meets the paper, how it holds the pen, and how the paper holds the ink. So, all these elements ... they are giving me the result that I already wanted, but I did not know how to ask for. At this point I am also very much aware of the risk that something else can happen when using the pen and the pen-split. It is a very gentle kind of movement.
The feeling of secureness arises when the white shape in the background and the lines that I am drawing meets, and when I see that this meeting is turning out the way I wanted it to be. It feels like I've just swallowed a bite of a potato or something... as if I've swallowed something. And it is a little bit stuck here. Something that I can feel under here. [pointing to where my jaw meets the neck] and then that it's moving again, but it's all happening in microseconds. Now I can go on working with that feeling of flow. Once this feeling happens, that's the point I wanted to reach. I can do this withdrawal of my eyes, while I am covering a piece of three by ten centimetres with lines of ink. And then quite abruptly, I don't know why, I shift back again. (...)
Photos: Carsten Aniksdal
Drawings copyright Petrine Vinje
- The text is a summary of a microphenomenological interview conducted by Dominique Baron-Bonarjee, interviewing Petrine Vinje, about drawing over a concept, 10.09.2020.The drawings are made between 2020-2025 and are all 50x70cm, Hahnemühle cotton paper with silkscreen ink, and drawing ink. Phenomenologist Claire Petitmengin developed micro-phenomenology after an idea advocated by the neurobiologist Francisco Varela, as a method to research in cognitive sciences.