4 hours of Facing a Blank Wall

Tony Orrico, unison symmetry standing

I came across this wonderful artist and performer Tony Orrico. He lays out large strips of paper, lies down and restricts himself to certain movements. Using graphite pencil over 4 hours creates Massive human spirograph. Or He stands against the wall for 12 hours and restricts his movement to only his arm length. Check it out here: www.tonyorrico.com/PENWALD_DRAWINGS.html

Over the course of this semester I have wanted to investigate creativity under constraint. For in that constraint is where creative decisions are made which produce unexpected but inspirational results. Placing oneself in that position of restriction with the tools at hand (process) turns us (to use a sailing metaphor) toward the wind of resistance and faces us into the storm where we ultimately face off against ourselves to hopefully come out the other side victorious in our efforts to create original work. Tony Orrico is a perfect example.

-matt