Drawing as 'translating': exploring the personal relationship with archive

A workshop led by artist Natsumi Sakamoto exploring drawing as 'translating' and as a way of creating a personal relationship with history.

Participants will refer to archival material of women workers in the jute industry in Dundee, focusing on their anonymity in history and acquiring the touch of lost memories through drawing.

Participants will observe archival material in various ways and make experimental drawings as they translate historical material in their own personal 'language'. 

Drawn to Dundee

This workshop is part of Drawn to Dundee, a series of talks and workshops accompanying the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021 at Cooper Gallery, co-curated by artists Tania Kovats, Professor of Drawing & Making and Alex Roberts, Lecturer in Drawing, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee. 
 

Participant information

This limited capacity in-person drawing workshop will take place within the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2021 exhibition on level 2 of Cooper Gallery.

Participants are requested to take a Rapid Lateral Flow Test prior to arriving to the workshop. 

Participants are invited to bring their preferred drawing materials, eg. Sketchbook, drawing tools, mobile phone, camera and/or sound recorder.

The gallery is on two floors. Ground floor has ramped access. First floor is accessible by an internal lift and six steps with a handrail. Wheelchair access is via a stairclimber. Please email in advance if you require lift, stairclimber or with any other access enquiries.

First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.
 

Artist's Biography

Natsumi Sakamoto (born in Tokyo, Japan) is an artist based in Glasgow who creates multi-media installations that include film, drawing and animation. Her practice employs oral tradition to examine memories of hidden history through a feminist lens. She explores the politics of women's work and gender roles embedded in the intangible heritage of superstitions, songs and everyday ritual passed down through intergenerational memory. 

Her work aims to make visible the multiplicity of storytelling by voicing individual experiences through cross-cultural dialogue.
Her recent solo and group exhibitions include: Knitting the Intangible Voices, 16Nicholson Street, Glasgow (2021); Memories in Movement, Place MAK, Seoul (2019); Quiet Dialogue: Invisible Existences and Us, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo (2019). She works internationally and with one of her most recent works she collaborated on a transnational filmmaking project between Scotland and Japan, "Speculative Fiction: Practicing Collectively" which was screened at e-flux Artist Cinemas. She often works collaboratively with artists from different disciplines and she is also a member of the feminism-focused artist collective called Back and Forth Collective.
 

Image credit

Natsumi Sakamoto, A Rowan Wards off Witches, 2019. Exhibition view at Place MAK, Seoul.

Funders and partners

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize project is led by its founding Director, Professor Anita Taylor, Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee, and is supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust.