You'll Never Know

This exhibition, curated by writer-curator Jeni Walwin and artist Henry Krokatsis, is about process: the procedures artists employ to introduce an element of chance and unpredictability into their work. Many of the drawings in the show involve a form of indirect mark-making, for example through low-tech printmaking or exposure to natural processes such as fire or the weather, where the artist has moved away from the work and relinquished control of the final composition.

The exhibition includes drawings, frottages and low-tech prints where the image cannot be absolutely predicted (Ian Breakwell, Mona Hatoum, Cornelia Parker, Mark Wallinger). Some artists use natural elements such as wind and heat to influence the process of mark-making: Tim Knowles employs the branches of trees as drawing instruments, Henry Krokatsis makes images with carbon deposit from smoke. Digital systems are used by Layla Curtis to track the wayward journeys of bottles thrown into the sea. Drawings by Ian Davenport and Richard Long subtly incorporate chance drips and splashes. Keith Tyson's notes and drawings for his Art Machine are shown here for the first time. The show will also incorporate video and performance pieces where random activity has contributed to the business of drawing (Paul Harrison and John Wood, Dave Farnham).

Artists in the Exhibition: Anna Barriball, Anne Bean, Ian Breakwell, William Burroughs, Paul Cassidy, Stephen Cripps, Layla Curtis, Ian Davenport, Tracey Emin, Dave Farnham, Jem Finer, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Rebecca Horn, Mona Hatoum, Claude Heath, Tim Knowles, Tania Kovats, Henry Krokatsis, Richard Long, Alice Maher, Cornelia Parker, Steven Pippin, Damien Roach, Ed Ruscha, Keir Smith, Keith Tyson, Mark Wallinger, Klaus Weber, John Wood and Paul Harrison.

Tour Details

This exhibition toured to the following venues:

25 Mar-18 Jun 2006
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston

29 Jul-24 Sep 2006
Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea

30 Sep-19 Nov 2006
The Lowry, Salford

1 Dec 2006-7 Jan 2007
The New Art Gallery, Walsall

13 Jan-25 Feb 2007
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle

End of tour

Category A

Top image: Ian Davenport, Poured paints: ice white, 2003, waterbased paint on paper, © Ian Davenport, courtesy Waddington Galleries, London.

Middle image: Henry Krokatsis,Chandelier 1, 2003, carbon deposit on paper © the artist 2005, courtesy David Risley Gallery.

Bottom image: Steven Pippin, Laundromat/Locomotion 1997, photo no. 6 from a sequence of 6 photos, contact from original negative exposed and developed with a Wascomat senior W125 triple loader, © the artist 2005.