Drawing Circus Photo-set: Prologue Pt 1. (Patreon)

The Drawing Circus has always been cyclical Borrowing from the tropes of folklore, literature and mythology the 'Circuses were often metaphors for the rhythms of the artistic process and the recycling, destruction and rebirth inherent in acts of creations.

Prologue marked one such rebirth - it took place in 2012, the year in which we transitioned from The Brighton Life Drawing Sessions to Draw, and drew a line under the drawing events of the past three years, making way for the future soon to come. Everything began in monochrome, the models painted white from head to toe and curled up, faces hidden, on a stage made from clean paper. Everything began with unseen potential, seed-like, until Ruth, in her recurrent guise of Time began to circle the central stage and draw the models into wakefulness, their poses unfurling and combining intuitively to the melodious accompaniment of the Drawchestra. 

After the interval, the white painted models formed a dramatic tableau onstage, a developed but incomplete narrative, an idea half formed, while around them Francesca Cluney performed one of the most affecting pieces of performance art I can remembered witnessing. Over a series of poses, each held with calm precision, she teased a magenta ballgown from beneath the paper leaves of the stage and proceeded to dress in still frame , gathering helium balloons (bubbles of half formed thought) bethenth the dress. The impact of the action was in its slow deliberation and clarity - it was no reverse striptease, or hurried mock-dressing but a series of three-minute long pauses spanning nearly an hour of anticipation, compounded by the urgent necessity to record the moment on paper. Only a hint of that drama remains in the photographs. As the dress billowed with the upward pressure of the balloons - a precursor to the panniers of the as-yet-unconceived  ringmistress dress - the Drawchestra went silent. Then, with a breath's pause, Robin struck up an abrupt melodic sawing across their cello, joined by Felix on electric guitar. On cue, all of the musicians began to sing Lacrimosa, a requiem for the Drawing Circus past. 

Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem. 

The music repeated and built, and repeated and built until in the final chorus, the final Dona eis requiem, Robin struck the last notes from the lone cello and the whole room went black. 

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Photos in this set were taken by Nic Brekespere and Shelley Morrow. You can use the Draw Patreon Navigator to find any of our past photosets.

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