Pens at the ready: 350,000 drawing for The Big Draw
“Without some drawing each day, there’s no proper seeing. That’s how it is for me,” says Andrew Marr, Campaign for Drawing Patron. “In the design process drawing is the act of thought.” says Sir Richard MacCormac, British architect and author, and Campaign for Drawing Patron. Marnie McKee goes in search of seeing through drawing.
28 Sep 2007 12:00
Marnie McKee
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Visual Arts
Big Draw’s National Launch is Sunday 30 September, with a massive all-day event of free drawing activities held in 20 venues within Tower Hamlets and Hackney, London. Educational charity The Campaign for Drawing’s month-long flagship event, The Big Draw then continues in over 1,000 venues across Britain and beyond, with innovative drawing-based events throughout October for adults and kids alike.
Last year 350,000 people got involved and activities kick of this Sunday at 10.30am with campaign patron and artist extraordinaire Quentin Blake and Big Draw East: Drawing Things Together. Blake will release a flock of paper birds at the Museum of Childhood. Celebrities, architects and cartoonists will all contribute to a giant ‘Big Picture Frame’ in the Museum Gardens next door – including Andrew Logan, Posy Simmonds and Adam Dant. The celebrations continue until late with a knees-up at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
Marnie McKee currently lives in London. In the mid-90’s she co-founded ToyBox Circus staging fire and light shows and art installations Australia-wide. Marnie co-produced two major Bodyweather-based works with dancer/director Leah Grycewicz. They toured Pre-Millenium Drinks across Australia (1998); and staged Stratus999, a 3-month site-specific multi-media dance project involving 8 international artists, in Cairns, Queensland. Marnie studied Bodyweather as part of Tess de Quincey’s Sydney-based dance company (1999-2001). In March 2004, Marnie settled in London and has since concentrated on establishing Bodyweather training in London, with dancer/teacher Rachel Sweeney. Together they have worked as AnonAnon, researching and creating interactive performance for site-based work (ranging from nightclub to national park) using immersive, inhabitational and durational tools. Congruently, Marnie has been training with and performing for Stuart Lynch (of Holberg School) in Oslo and London, and more recently, training with Frank van de Ven of Bodyweather Amsterdam in Holland and France.
