Lúcia Prancha

Let us consider first the dimensions of the drawings. The sheets of paper are cut from a continuous roll, with a set width and undetermined length, which the artist decided to cut every two meters; this corresponds almost to the area of a bed sheet, establishing a relation with the body scale. Let us continue with the material used to draw on or to fill in the sheet of paper: a black felt-tip pen. This choice of material denotes one of the first disappointment felt by children when drawing with this sort of pens: they invariably complain about the color, the black pen does not paint black – it looks like blue, purple, red…; about their discontentment with its capacity to cover a surface or the limitations on their efficiency – this pen is worn-out, it doesn’t paint well! It is during the process of covering a delimited surface with the felt tip pen that these small frustrations arise, together with the surprises and strangeness produced by the process itself in the series of drawings by Lúcia Prancha. The dialectic between the project (definition of the area, choice of material and method) and the rules of the game (to follow the line, the digression or the previous mistake) makes way for the exercise of exhausting the feeling of disappointment: with the “wrong” tools and unknown durability, these drawings strive to counteract the imperfect. The method in this proposal is closely connected with a physical practice, drawing as a form of exercise: the repetition of a certain action, the continuity of a certain rhythm in the movement and intensity, where the body determines the scale. The notion of time is conveyed by the covered area and the varying shades that bear witness to the durability of the black pen. When mentioning these drawings, the artist speaks of the “document of a performative discourse” and they are indeed evidence, proof or the mapping of the transference of time necessary to engrave the idea of the passing of time itself.