Daniel Zeller

Synthesised Abatement, 2008, graphite on paper, 40 x 50 inches

Invasive Seclusion, 2007

Enforced Toxification, 2008

The level of technique and detail is incredible, almost unbelievable that it isn’t a microscopic image – what initially told me it wasn’t were the surreal combined textures. Synthesised – to form something by a combination of components. Abatement – an end to something – in the case of law it is the reduction or removal of a nuisance. What can I take from these works/this artist? Duration – this must have taken a long time. Focus – the attention to detail and engagement with act of drawing and concept. Pattern in repetition. Using words and their definitions as concept prompts e.g. Synthesised, Abatement, Invasive, Seclusion etc.

His drawings are rife with repetition, spontaneity and obsession. An artist dedicated to rigorous, labour-intensive discipline. He has developed a vocabulary consisting of about fifteen motifs that he incorporates into each drawing, creating either a network or a disconnect between the forms.

NO REVISIONS, NO BACK-TRACKING

https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2008-daniel-zeller-pierogi-brooklyn/1466

Robert Rauschenberg

“I loved drawing and wanted to find a way to bring drawing into the all-whites.”

De Kooning wanted to give him something really difficult to erase – something with oil paint, charcoal, pencil and crayon. He spent a month erasing it. On the other side there’s one that isn’t erased, “the documentation is built-in”. It wasn’t intended as a potent or pure act of destruction against an established artist or popular art style. It was poetry.

I was keen to explore erasure as a drawing process and respond to Emma Dexter’s assertion that once a mark is made there is no going back.