Movement drawings from Records of Line, 2019
Photos courtesy of Dylan Sosso
A professional speedskater will cut thousands of marks into canvases of ice and scuff as many marks onto the dry grounds of training facilities during their career. Their body contorts into unnatural positions and performs a series of bizarre movements in order to achieve speeds upwards of 40 mph. In the art studio, drawn marks created by these movements become the central focus and embody their own materiality and beauty. These meditative drawings remove speedskating from the ultra-competitive world of domestic and international competition and allows our focus to return to rest in the beauty and playfulness of works created by the repetition of speedskating movements. Though autobiographical, these drawings are meant to invite others to engage with each piece through their own expertises and experiences of time, practice, repetition and movement.
Video: The drawings record movements of speedskating exercises used in “dry land” or off-ice training. These condensed moments of energy captures the beauty of physical movement and the magnitude of time it rakes to acquire skill. Each mark holds within itself both a moment in time and thousands of hours of practice.
