Monday, November 25, 2013

On Drawing

To draw is to look, examining the structure of appearances.
A drawing of a tree shows, not a tree, but a tree-being-looked-at.
Whereas the sight of a tree is registered almost instantaneously,
the examination of the sight of a tree (a tree-being-looked-at) 
not only takes minutes or hours instead of a fraction of a second, 
it also involves, derives from, and refers back to, 
much previous experience of looking,
Within the instant of the sight of a tree is established a life-experience. 
This is how the act of drawing refuses the process of disappearances
 and proposes the simultaneity of a multitude of moments.

Berger On Drawing - John Berger

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