ASTRONOMICA
When I travelled in Turkey in 1992, it was winter, and it was cold. I spent a lot of time in coffee shops. Because I had no books, I drew.
I used a very fine technical pen. I drew on cheap office memo paper, because it fit well in my pocket.
These drawings draw on many sources: the constellation drawings of H. A. Rey, and also Miro and Klee and Calder, and then First Nations artists, and the folk arts of Sumatra, and then the sudden shock of Islamic calligraphy. These sources collected into a tight grammar of signs, only a few of them, by which I attempted to describe both outer and inner forms of space.
These drawings took hours to make. Colouring in even the smallest area was a challenge, because the pen was so small, and the paper was so fragile.
There are about sixty of these. Here are ten, all from coffee shops in Turkey, between November 14 and 28, in 1992.
