Drawing Act I: Nicole Morris

Drawing Act I: Labour, Faith, Exhaustion was a project led by artist Nicole Morris in collaboration with a group of women from The Bridge and Southwark Women’s Space – two centres that support the mental health and wellbeing of women based in Southwark.

Over the weeks, drawings evolved into experimental drawn films and a large-scale batik, culminating in a small edition of publication which is available in Drawing Room’s Outset Study Library. The collaborative artwork is now hung on display at The Bridge, Southwark.

Mimicking collectives of women that would congregate to design and make quilts, they drew around domestic objects, making patterns out of tools we live and work with. The word quilt, connected to culcita, Latin for bolster, a cushion – was a symbol of the support the individuals in the group gave each other. Over the weeks, drawings evolved into experimental drawn films and large-scale batik, culminating in a small edition of publications archived in Drawing Room’s Outset Study Library.

Drawing Act I was the first in a series of live participatory projects which bring new perspectives to the exhibition programme, in this case, delving deeper into shared experiences of labour, faith and exhaustion which were explored as autobiographical themes in Donna Huddleston’s exhibition, The Exhausted Student.

‘I loved having conversations with like minded creative women.’  Patricia (Participant)

‘I saw confidence in this room that I have never seen before.’ Sylvie (The Bridge)