Mapping Pinpoints

Thesis

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts

in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Léah Dwyer, B.F.A.

Graduate Program in Art

The Ohio State University

2020

Thesis Committee

Sergio Soave, Advisor

Suzanne Silver

Gina Osterloh

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Copyrighted by

Léah Dwyer

2020

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Abstract

Mapping Pinpoints explores the intersection between mapping, repetition, copies and editions through a collection of altered pinboard panels, pierced mylar stencils and pounced toner powder prints.

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Dedication

Dedicated to friends and family in Virginia, Columbus and St. Raphaël.

Merci pour vos conseils – bises.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to my advisor, Sergio Soave, and committee members, Suzanne Silver and

Gina Osterloh. Thanks to my fellow printmaking grads – your feedback was instrumental

in completing my thesis work.

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Vita

2017....……...………………...... B.F.A., Printmaking, George Mason University

2017 to present…………………………..Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of

…………………………………………...Art, The Ohio State University

Fields of Study

Major Field: Art

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii Dedication ...... iii Acknowledgments...... iv Vita ...... v List of Figures ...... vii Introduction ...... 1 Chapter 1: Mapping ...... 2 I. Mark Lombardi – Representing from a Single Perspective ...... 3 II. Sophie Calle – Reimagined Connections ...... 7 III. Raphael – Pierced Maps...... 10 Chapter 2: Repetition ...... 14 Chapter 3: Copies & Editions ...... 17 Moving Forward ...... 22 Bibliography ...... 25

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Mark Lombardi’s Phil Schwab, CB Financial and Eureka Federal Savings c.

1981-6, 1997, Pencil on notebook paper, 11 x 14 in……………………………………...4

Figure 2. Piercing pin pricks through mylar stencil with bookmaking awl……………….6

Figure 3. Pierced mylar stencils taped across pinboard panels…………………………....6

Figure 4. Sophie Calle, The Hotel, Room 47, 1981, Photographs and ink, 2140 x 1420 mm……………………………………………………………………………………..…7

Figure 5. Pinboard panel (detail)……………………………………………………...…..8

Figure 6. Pierced mylar stencil overtop pinboard panel (detail)…………………………..9

Figure 7. Pounced toner powder print (detail)…………………………………………….9

Figure 8. Raphael, The School of Athens preparatory cartoon, c. 1510 – 1511………….10

Figure 9. Raphael, The School of Athens, c. 1510 – 1511, Fresco……………………….11

Figure 10. Pounced and heat-set mylar stencil (1)...……………………………………..12

Figure 11. Pounced and heat-set mylar stencil (2)...……………………………………..13

Figure 12. Pierced and heat-set mylar stencils (3)……………………………………….13

Figure 13. Agnes Martin, Stars, 1963, Ink, watercolor, paper, 12 x 12 in………………15

Figure 14. Stars (detail)………………………………………………………………….15

Figure 15. Mapping Pinpoints at Urban Arts Space, February 2020…………………….17

Figure 16. Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing, 2018……………………………………………..19 vii

Figure 17. Pierced mylar stencil…………………………………………………………20

Figure 18. Toner powder prints (both originate from one stencil)………………………21

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Introduction

My thesis work investigates the intersection between mapping, repetition, copies and editions. The production and distribution of maps rely on a repetitive process of gathering and representing. Copies and editions – or iterations – oftentimes originate from a unique perspective, namely that of one individual. Within my thesis collection, I include altered pinboard panels, pierced mylar stencils and prints to act as source material, lenses through which to interpret information sets and varied maps, respectively. A ritualistic, process-based method of making and reimagining grounds my practice as a print artist and bookmaker.

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Chapter 1: Mapping

I study maps through Mark Lombardi’s graphite diagrams, Narrative Structures,

Sophie Calle’s photograph series, The Hotel, Room 47, and preparatory cartoons – preliminary drawings whose outlines are pricked and used as guidelines for producing large-scale frescos – by Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael. Although my investigation of mapping is inspired by Lombardi and Calle, my thesis work does not share the same conceptual investigations. Lombardi’s drawings serve to reveal government conspiracies and Calle’s photographs present fictional links between individuals and objects.

Specifically, my thesis work is influenced by Lombardi’s use of single perspective and

Calle’s ability to propose connections, but not the particular conceptual origins of either’s practice. This body of work analyzes the relationships between past and present studio occupants, interactions among makers and pinboards, and connections between pinpoints.

2 I. Mark Lombardi – Representing from a Single Perspective

Visual artist, Mark Lombardi, traces and communicates information through hand drawn maps. In his series of diagrams, Narrative Structures, he links fiscal data between private and federal groups to reveal political and financial conspiracies. Like mapmakers, Lombardi closely examines relationships by reorganizing and representing information sets in new ways. Lombardi’s claims in Narrative Structures present visual representations from a singular point of view. While his graphite diagrams are intriguing works of visual art, Lombardi’s attention was not on composition, form or visual balance. Rather, his maps aim to display reassembled and reworked sets of information for viewers.

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Figure 1. Mark Lombardi, Phil Schwab, CB Financial and Eureka Federal Savings c.

1981-6, 1997, Pencil on notebook paper, 11 x 14 in

Like Lombardi, I map connections. Although the pin pricks and their iterations on each print may seem visually appealing, mapping interactions between past and present studio occupants is my objective. In contrast with Lombardi, I work with information that originates from one environment. Prior to being torn down and transported to a gallery space, the panels and their pinpoints have only lived in one room and been punctured by a handful of studio occupants. Lombardi’s source material spans a much wider net and explores relationships between groups separated by physical distance. In this way, I have a different, more physical relationship to my source material than does Lombardi. I pierce

4 through studio panels with a bookmaking awl, leaving a permanent pin prick remnant, while Lombardi traces graphite diagrams that lighten over time. My marks are the product of physical and visceral exertion while Lombardi’s works are carefully drawn on notebook paper. In this way, we differ in aspects of physicality and closeness to source material.

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Figure 2. Piercing pin pricks through mylar stencil with bookmaking awl

Figure 3. Pierced mylar stencils taped across pinboard panels

6 II. Sophie Calle – Reimagined Connections

Sophie Calle, a French photographer and maker, researched the relationships

formed between hotel guests and personal belongings. Hired as a housekeeper in a

Venetian hotel in 1981, Calle produced a series of photographs, The Hotel. In this

collection of photographs and original text, she catalogues objects left in twelve hotel

rooms and pens imagined connections between belongings and individuals.

Specifically, The Hotel, Room 47 explores the relationship between objects and

guests through four pairs of slippers, the contents of a suitcase and torn photographs,

among other personal effects. By inspecting the contents of a hotel room, Calle maps

and envisions links between people and objects.

Figure 4. Sophie Calle, The Hotel, Room 47, 1981, Photographs and ink, 2140 x 1420 mm

7 Like Calle’s The Hotel series, my thesis collection of panels, stencils and prints map relationships between individuals and objects. Marks left behind on studio pinboards showcase interactions between studio occupants and a surface. My prints represent maps that depict relationships between a maker’s interaction with studio panels and pinpoint remnants. While the toner printed maps parallel Calle’s investigation of relationships, my visual works are not accompanied by original text. Unlike Calle, I do not provide viewers with potential readings of a space nor do I offer my understanding of relationships between individuals and objects. Rather, I use stencils to print sets of information. I record and represent specific areas across four studio pinboards.

Figure 5. Pinboard panel (detail)

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Figure 6. Pierced mylar stencil overtop pinboard panel (detail)

Figure 7. Pounced toner powder print (detail)

9 III. Raphael – Pierced Maps

The cartoon that Raphael used to complete his fresco, The School of Athens, showcases the artist’s study of relationships between objects. A cartoon – or cartone – is a preliminary sketch that acts as a guide for creating two-dimensional fresco works.

Small holes are pricked along the outlines of subjects in the sketch. The pricked cartoon is placed overtop a wall and dark powder is pounced lightly across the surface. Once the cartoon is removed from the wall, black dots remain and offer guidelines for the artist to apply pigment. Raphael’s cartoon and its purpose demonstrate an artist’s investigation of object-to-object relationships. Once the cartoon is pounced onto and removed from the wall, the remnants and the distances between each pierced dot present a map of an image or scene.

Figure 8. Raphael, The School of Athens preparatory cartoon, c. 1510 – 1511

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Figure 9. Raphael, The School of Athens, c. 1510 – 1511, Fresco

Raphael’s cartoon allowed him to map and reveal connections between dots through pouncing. I, too, use pouncing to map marks on a two-dimensional plane in my thesis work. In place of paper cartoons, I utilize pierced mylar stencils to map, reproduce and reexamine sections of the pinboard panels. This method allows me to better understand the links between each printed dot; what drives them apart from and what draws them towards one another. By using toner instead of charcoal powder, my preference in printing materials contrasts with that of Raphael. Toner powder – a printing material used in modern-day photocopiers – allows me to produce iterations, rather than exact copies, of maps. In this way, I use toner powder to perform a task that rebels against its intended purpose.

11 Unlike Raphael, I place value on used stencils. As preliminary sketches, cartoons produced during the Italian Renaissance were typically regarded as materials destined for the trash. By heat-setting mylar stencils coated in toner powder, I retain stable remnants of the printing process that showcase my interactions with a surface. For instance, one stencil may contain areas that are intensely dark or light. This variation in tone suggests different pouncing pressures. I display heat-set stencils alongside prints to present a full picture of the making process. By assigning value to stencils, my understanding of mapped images differs from that of Raphael. The mylar stencils are as much a part of my thesis work as the toner powder prints.

Figure 10. Pounced and heat-set mylar stencil (1)

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Figure 11. Pounced and heat-set mylar stencil (2)

Figure 12. Pierced and heat-set mylar stencils (3)

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Chapter 2: Repetition

In researching the repetition of images and movements, I look to Agnes Martin and her geometric watercolor painting, Stars. Within this work, a series of repetitive visuals and a map of Martin’s repeated physical movements are on display. Stars showcases Martin’s use of an aligned grid as well as marks made by a steady hand. Her use of repetitive patterns and meticulous mark making implies a sense of control over the materials. By repeatedly illustrating the same lines, measuring the same-sized boxes and dotting the center of each square, Martin demonstrates her intense familiarity with the surface and mark making materials. This familiarity is also elevated by her use of a small work space and ruler. Many of her paintings begin as postage-sized sketches and are translated to a larger scale through proportioned measurements. I understand Martin’s repetitive making processes and imagery as a form of ritual for herself and her viewers.

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Figure 13. Agnes Martin, Stars, 1963, Ink, watercolor, paper, 12 x 12 in

Figure 14. Stars (detail) 15 Through consistent interactions with my source materials, printing tools and making processes, I’ve developed a similar level of ritualistic familiarity with my work.

Establishing a repetitive routine in which I interact with my source material helped me understand concepts, printing processes, my relationship to the pin pricks and their links to one another. In this way, I work through and with repetition. My ritualistic studio practice played a role in establishing trust between myself and the materials. This repetitive routine allowed me to become accustomed to working with toner powder.

Eventually, I understood the idiosyncrasies that accompanied the powder and, through repetition, learned how to use the material effectively.

Repetition also appears in the form of patterns and images in my thesis work. In truth, my source material is comprised of one repeated image – a pin prick that measures about one millimeter in diameter. Just as I am able to gain knowledge of a demanding and unstable medium through repeated physical actions, I can acquire a similar level of intimacy with the source material by confronting its repetitive patterns. This form of visual repetition awarded me a deeper knowledge of the pin pricks and their relationships to one another and fostered experimentation within my treatment of the images.

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Chapter 3: Copies & Editions

The process of removing each pinboard from my studio space, cutting them down and, finally, installing them at a separate gallery space for the MFA thesis exhibition offered me a different light in which to see my work. Spotlights revealed new texture in the pinboard panels. A clean wall allowed me to experience prints in a space devoid of smears, dents and scratches. Tall pedestals displayed artist books proudly at the center of the space. For the first time, I was witnessing the work from the perspective of a gallery visitor.

Figure 15. Mapping Pinpoints at Urban Arts Space, February 2020

17 My analysis of pin pricks and my ritualistic practice of piercing stencils, pouncing prints and binding artist books had taken place in a single room for a year and a half.

Establishing a physical distance allowed me to separate myself mentally from the work.

In visiting the gallery space, I was able to recognize new relationships between pin pricks and acknowledge other ways of mapping source material. Physical separation, I’d learned, was vital to understanding how copies and editions intersect with mapping and repetition in my work.

During my investigation of copies, I researched Sol LeWitt, a visual artist whose work is produced and displayed through instructions carried out by others. His Wall

Drawings are of particular interest to me because, despite LeWitt’s passing in 2007, his paintings continue to be made. In August 2018, a group of OSU students completed one of LeWitt’s Wall Drawings in Pomerene Hall at the Columbus campus. During the installation, overseers and students adhered to LeWitt’s careful painting instructions.

While the piece in Pomerene Hall could be understood as simply a copy of LeWitt’s work, I view it as a reimagination of the piece and a new interpretation of his written instructions.

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Figure 16. Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing, 2018

Similarly, I create a set of visual instructions by piercing mylar stencils with a bookmaking awl. Each stencil contains a map of pin prick clusters. The stencils permit myself and others to recreate printed maps of pinboard dots. Just as Sol LeWitt leaves instructions for his painted murals, I create and retain mylar stencils that serve as guides to making a print. These stencils could easily be passed on to others and used to create prints outside of my studio space. I would view prints produced by others as varied representations of pinboard source material. This area of study connects to my investigation of how copies and editions are understood in the printmaking community.

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Figure 17. Pierced mylar stencil

An edition is a collection of identical prints that have been numbered, titled and signed. The numbers correspond to the order in which each print was produced.

Traditionally, the print labeled ‘1/…’ is regarded as the most valuable. Although a printmaker’s goal is to produce prints that closely resemble one another, the print identified as first of its kind is typically more desirable in the eyes of buyers and collectors. I resist this form of cataloguing because it suggests that prints act as literal copies rather than varied iterations produced by humans. My thesis work questions the notion of copies within a print artist and bookmaker’s studio.

20 Among the works in my thesis collection are four prints that originate from a single pierced stencil. Each print stems from and represents the same number of pin pricks in the same vicinity on the pinboard panels. While they share these commonalities, each of the prints depict an iteration of mapped source material. Where a printed dot remains reserved and contained in one version, its twin is loose and spewed across the plane of another print. Each pinpoint is birthed from a single pierced hole in the stencil and, yet, they cannot be recognized as copies of each other. They act as reimaginations or representations of source material.

Figure 18. Toner powder prints (both originate from one stencil)

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Moving Forward

I plan to continue investigating the intersection between mapping, repetition, copies and editions beyond my graduate studies through mail art. Upon receiving my mailed materials and instructions in an envelope, each participant would be directed to send printed maps back to me. Then, I’d assemble each representation into a bound collection of pounced works. Each envelope will contain seven materials and printing instructions:

In this envelope:

• 1 4x6-in newsprint (use as working surface)

• 1 3x5-in pierced mylar stencil

• 3 3x5-in BFK Rives paper

• 1 cotton rag

• 1 Ziplock bag with 2 TBSP of charcoal powder

• 1 rubber band

• 1 small envelope (addressed and stamped)

Other materials needed (not included):

• Hairspray

22 Instructions:

1. Place newsprint on flat surface. This will be your working surface and will

help keep your area clean.

2. Place one sheet of BFK Rives on top of newsprint.

3. Place pierced mylar stencil overtop blank page. You should now have

three pages stacked.

4. In a separate space, gently fill cotton rag with charcoal powder. Bring

together each corner of the rag and secure with rubber band.

5. Grasp the cinched top of the filled cotton rag and, lightly, tap its round

base to the surface of the mylar stencil. Charcoal powder should slowly

escape from the rag and rest on the stencil. Repeat until full stencil has

been coated with charcoal powder. Set aside cinched rag and wash hands.

6. Carefully remove mylar stencil. Set aside. A complete pounced print is

now visible.

7. Using hairspray, spray surface of print. Hairspray should be held about

twelve inches above the print.

8. Slip prints into addressed/stamped envelope and send to me. Once I’ve

collected printed maps from all participants, I will bind them into an artist

book.

Note: Charcoal powder is used rather than toner powder because it is easier to set with at-home materials (i.e. hairspray). Two additional sheets of BFK Rives are included in this envelope for any mishaps that occur during the making process.

23 Readers of this thesis are invited to follow these steps and make their own pierced mylar stencils and pounced prints. Better yet, readers are encouraged to initiate a similar mail art exchange. Mylar stencils would, of course, have to be punched by the maker/mail art organizer.

24 Bibliography

“Artist Agnes Martin – ‘Beauty is in Your Mind.’” YouTube, uploaded by Tate, 5 June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=902YXjchQsk

Bambach, Carmen. Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop: Theory and Practice, 1300 – 1600. , Cambridge UP, 1999.

Baume, Nicholas. Sol LeWitt: Structures, 1965 – 2006. New York, Public Art Fund, 2011.

Bender, Susan. The World According to the Newest and Most Exact Observations: Mapping Art and Science. Saratoga Springs NY, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, 2001.

Bloom, Lary. Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas. Middletown CT, Wesleyan UP, 2019.

Brennan, Kathleen, director. Agnes Martin: Before the Grid. Kanopy, 2016, osu-kanopy- com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/video/agnes-martin-grid.

Calle, Sophie. L’Hôtel. Paris, Éditions de l’Étoile, 1984.

Calle, Sophie. M’As-Tu Vue. Munich, Prestel, 2003.

“The ‘Conspiracy’ Art of Mark Lombardi.” Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR, 1 Nov. 2003. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1487185

Eklund, Douglas. Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018.

Hand, Janet. “Sophie Calle's Art of Following and Seduction.” Cultural Geographies, vol. 12, no. 4, Oct. 2005, pp. 463–484. JSTOR, www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.ohio- state.edu/stable/44251058?seq=1.

Harmon, Katharine. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography. New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010.

25 Harmon, Katharine. You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

LeWitt, Sol. Wall Drawing. 2018. Columbus OH. https://www.columbusmakesart.com/place/9535-wall-drawing.

Lombardi, Mark. Phil Schwab, CB Financial and Eureka Federal Savings c. 1981-6. 2020, , www.moma.org/collection/works/96552?artist_id=22980&locale=en&page=1&sov _referrer=artist.

Martin, Agnes. Stars. 1963. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, , NY. Sotheby’s, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/contemporary- art-evening-auction-n09858/lot.19.html

Michelangelo. Putti Playing with Hoops (Cartoon for a Fresco in the Parma Cathedral). c. 1548. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/420449.

Raphael. The School of Athens. 1510 – 1511. Vatican Museums, Vatican.

SFMOMA. Sophie Calle’s Voyeuristic Portraits of Hotel Rooms. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2020, www.sfmoma.org/watch/sophie-calles-voyeuristic-portraits- of-hotel-rooms/.

Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. New York, Penguin, 2006.

“Sophie Calle: The Hotel, Room 47.” Tate, 2020, London, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/calle-the-hotel-room-47-p78300

Stewart, Jessica. “The Story Behind Raphael’s Masterpiece ‘The School of Athens.’” My Modern Met, 6 Sept. 2018, mymodernmet.com/school-of-athens-raphael

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