Working onsite, Joelle Tuerlinckx will create a new project that draws, indexes, and reports the measurements and scale of The Drawing Center’s main gallery space. Lengths of thread, masses of confetti, elastic bands, rolls of paper, and areas of light projection will become tools for the artist to trace her experience of the space.

Tuerlinckx’s new installation will draw on an unconventional combination of materials taken from the immediate environment. The artist will re-draw the main gallery by marking, erasing, and re-tracing the identifying lines, volumes and processes of the space. Through what Tuerlinckx calls her “Stretch Drawings,” which develop through prolonged video projections, she will extend this vision to include new layouts for the gallery.

In her extensive working process, Tuerlinckx culls and arranges generic objects in ways that address and consciously expand methods of drawing. The artist’s installations often resemble archaeological sites that are overflowing with materials categorized according to multiple associations. Working on the floor or on large tables, she displays an inventory of objects such as wooden sticks, Styrofoam balls, stacks of doilies, and Post-it notes, meticulously arranged to bring out qualities of line, shape, texture, hue, and spatial relationships that are usually overlooked in everyday life. Tuerlinckx’s constellations of marks re-consider the roles and functions of collecting, preserving, and exhibiting within art institutions.

Tuerlinckx’s work has been featured in numerous international solo exhibitions, such as: Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (2004); The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2003); Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands (2001); Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (1999) and Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (1994). Her work was also included in Documenta 11 (2002); Density plus or minus Zero at the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (2000); Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2000); Chantal Akerman, Delphine Bedel, Ben Cain, Joelle Tuerlinckx at Marres, Maastricht, The Netherlands (2000); and Inside the Visible at ICA, Boston, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (1996).