Jorinde Voigt
Berlin-based artist Jorinde Voigt unveiled an extraordinary wall drawing at the Menil Drawing Institute in September 2019.
The wall drawing titled Vertical (2019), is a site-specific piece, conceptualised for the location; it is the second in an ongoing series of wall drawings in the interior entry space of the Drawing Institute. Known primarily for her works on paper, Voigt crafts complex notational systems to form the basis of her drawings and is influenced by musical scores, philosophical notions, and scientific diagrams.
Beginning with the concept of a “vertical axis,” a line that sits perpendicular to the earth and tracks the rotational movement of a body, this epic new work responds to the vegetation and natural resources endemic to Houston and the Gulf Coast region, and records Voigt’s presence within this landscape. Using mark-making strategies evocative of artists like Joseph Beuys and Cy Twombly, Voigt’s drawing takes its substructure from sources as diverse as geologic mapping and the force of gravitational pull. With the composition unfolding on two opposite walls ten feet in height, this immersive piece is Voigt’s most monumental work to date, and the first in which she employed chalk as the primary medium, in addition to graphite and gold leaf on wall paint.