Elastic Perspective: The diagonal line and the production of deep space

This article considers a practice of experimental drawing that crosses spatiality, collectivity and temporality. The exercise titled ‘Elastic Perspective’ extends from conceptual drawing and performance practices of the 1960s and 1970s and takes a critical approach to traditional applications of perspective theory in drawing. It differs from other contemporary practices of performance drawing, as the method produces no visual representations or physical objects. Elastic Perspective suggests that perspective can be thought of ‘materially’. Thinking perspective ‘materially’ rather than somewhere between an abstract schema, metaphor for subjectivity and an historical technical rule, the practice reveals new insights into the experience and process of drawing in what has traditionally been thought of as representational space. This study explores the concept of an experimental perspective practice through the description of a performative, relational, immaterial line drawing involving two or more moving participants. Together the untrained participants discover the qualities of the diagonal line in the production of depth in imaginary representational space. The proposition of this practice-led research is that perspective can be considered an elastic relation of materiality in performance, in addition to a symbolic theoretical overlay or latent organizing principle of real space in drawing.