Two cities two modernities: drawings

Following Petherbridge’s key-note address to the conference Drawing Connections: The Rôle of Drawing in contemporary Art and Design, College of Fine Arts, UNSW, August 2001 (forthcoming book publication, ed Prof. Michael Esson) she was invited to undertake a visiting professorship at Monash University, 14 July to 27 October 2003, which included funded travel to two conferences, post-graduate tutorials and public lectures in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart. Her key-note address “Meditations on a Dirty Word” on issues of skill in art and design was delivered to the Annual Conference of the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools at the University of Tasmania(1-4October 2003) (Proceedings published www.acuads.com.au/conf2003/conf2003htm) The studio project part of the residency was a response to the architecture and historic town-planning of Melbourne, and the exhibition (displayed alongside an exhibition of war-site drawings by Paul Gough) included the four meter drawing Taming the Bay 2003, as well as an ironic slide-show response to Melburbia called ‘Law and Order.’ In its investigation of place the exhibition followed the format of Framing LA: A View from the Acropolis, June 2002 which ended Petherbridge’s year as a Scholar in the Getty Research Center, Los Angeles 2001-2002, where in addition to scholarly book research, she undertook a drawing series exploring the contradictory topologies of Los Angeles as a dream city punctuated by disorienting car parks and fly-overs. A similar City project was initiated during her residency at Beaconsfield National University Lahore, Pakistan (October – December 2006). Architectonic drawings from all these series were exhibited inPetherbridge Alone with Soane in Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing (19 January – 3 March 2007) and pieces were acquired by the British Museum. The exhibition accompanied Drawing As Vital Practice,a selection of nine international artists curated by Petherbridge. Both shows were previewed on BBC London News 18 January 2007.