On the alternating work of an Artist recording LINEAR POETRY

liveWORK | On the alternating work of an Artist recording LINEAR POETRY

“What is produced is not an image. Not even a body of work. It is an adaptive architectural interface a coherent way of inhabiting the world built on the principles of drawing from life” — GH

Since 2010, GH has developed ‘liveWORK‘ as a living interface for pattern recognition. Drawing remains the discipline at the core of this system. Under conditions of irreversibility and sustained attention, the line records presence as decision. ‘liveWORK’ extends that discipline beyond the page. The same logic that governs drawing – coherence, duration, consequence – governs lived structure. In this sense, the artist observes and draws new functions in infrastructure: not metaphorically, but operationally scales the format to infinity.

Structural and spatial extension of his drawing practice. It is not a series, nor an architectural revamp, change in land use or residency format, nor a discrete body of works. It names a condition in which studio practice, entrepreneurial activity, and daily observation operate within a multiple level integrated system. What emerges is not the expansion of the artwork, but the redefinition of an artistic medium by transitioning the practice from paper into the experience of life.

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The Practice Exceeds the Studio

At a certain point, the studio ceased to delimit the work. Drawing, understood as a method for structuring perception, entered daily life directly. Observation informed enterprise. Enterprise required observation. This integration was not conceptual positioning. It was structural necessity.

From this integration emerged what GH terms the ARTIST MINDSET: a working model in which art, life, and socio-economic design are not held apart. The artist’s mind becomes the research site. Not as subjectivity, but as system – one that can be examined, refined, and sustained through practice. The work lies not only in what is produced, but in how coherence is maintained.

Africa enters this trajectory as infrastructural condition. GH’s relocation to Tamraght in 1999 and later to Cape Town in 2005 did not serve as aesthetic backdrop or biographical marker. It positioned the practice within socio-economic contexts where art, conviviality, and enterprise required structural alignment. In this environment, liveWORK was tested against material conditions rather than insulated by institutional economies. Africa operates here as ecosystem logic: a context that demanded integration rather than separation.

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The Practice Exceeds the Studio

At a certain point, the studio ceased to delimit the work. Drawing, understood as a method for structuring perception, entered daily life directly. Observation informed enterprise. Enterprise required observation. This integration was not conceptual positioning. It was structural necessity.

From this integration emerged what GH terms the ARTIST MINDSET: a working model in which art, life, and socio-economic design are not held apart. The artist’s mind becomes the research site. Not as subjectivity, but as system – one that can be examined, refined, and sustained through practice. The work lies not only in what is produced, but in how coherence is maintained.

Africa enters this trajectory as infrastructural condition. GH’s relocation to Tamraght in 1999 and later to Cape Town in 2005 did not serve as aesthetic backdrop or biographical marker. It positioned the practice within socio-economic contexts where art, conviviality, and enterprise required structural alignment. In this environment, liveWORK was tested against material conditions rather than insulated by institutional economies. Africa operates here as ecosystem logic: a context that demanded integration rather than separation.

The Artwork as Living Structure

Within liveWORK, the artwork does not disappear. The drawings remain. The graphite remains. What shifts is their status. They function as traces within a larger system governed by time, attention, and responsibility. Each irreversible mark documents a decision made within a sustained structure of inhabitation.

This situates GH within traditions of process-based and duration-oriented practices. Yet the emphasis here is distinct. Where earlier conceptual frameworks privileged idea as material, liveWORK privileges lived coherence as material. Life itself becomes structured through drawing. The work is neither performance nor social activation. It is the maintenance of a system in which perception, action, and consequence align.

What distinguishes this from relational aesthetics or social practice is the absence of three dependencies: performativity, audience participation, and institutional mediation. The system operates independently of these frameworks. It does not require external validation to maintain coherence. The work exists in the sustained alignment of drawing discipline with daily structure.

Positioning Within Contemporary Discourse

Contemporary discourse frequently addresses artistic labor, alternative economies, and the permeability of practice. liveWORK approaches these questions through construction rather than critique. The socio-economic positioning of the artist is not external to the work, nor framed as opposition to institutional systems. It is integrated and made legible as part of the artistic method.

There is no appeal to participation as spectacle, nor reliance on institutional validation. Instead, the work insists on coherence. A practice sustained across fifteen years, governed by internally consistent principles, becomes readable as structure rather than gesture. That legibility is not rhetorical. It is operational.

Transmission and Pedagogy

To encounter liveWORK is to encounter a functioning epistemic structure. The GH Studio and associated mentorship formats extend this structure through pedagogical rather than stylistic transmission. What is transferred is not aesthetic signature but methodological discipline: the capacity to sustain coherence across drawing, observation, and socio-economic design.

The ARTIST MINDSET in this context names a structural capacity rather than an identity position. It describes the integration of perception with responsibility, of material practice with lived consequence. This integration can be studied, refined, and cultivated – but not replicated as formula. The work of transmission lies in demonstrating how such integration is maintained over time.

The salon dinners and grant structures that have emerged within this framework are not peripheral programming. They are constitutive elements of the system. They document how the practice generates its own conditions of sustainability without requiring market dependency or institutional subsidy. Duration becomes viable through structural integration rather than external support.

Conclusion

Drawing, for GH, is a method of visualizing presence. Through liveWORK, that method expands into life-architecture. Line, time, and value remain the operative materials, but they extend beyond image-making into sustained inhabitation. The result is not an expanded object, but a coherent worldview – one capable of operating parallel to mainstream systems without requiring opposition to them.

liveWORK does not seek validation. It offers structure. In an art world increasingly attentive to duration, autonomy, and ethical production, such coherence carries its own consequence. What remains to be observed is how this model functions not as exception but as viable precedent — a demonstration that artistic practice can sustain its own economies without abandoning intellectual rigor or material discipline.

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Text by Zanna Katoka

Commissioned for institutional catalogue and archive documentation

the balance between similarity and difference

We now turn our focus to the conditions that spark convivial creativity. Inspired by the concept of “related variety,” which will be introduced by our guest Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg, we will explore the balance between similarity and difference— “how close or dispersed our ideas and mindsets can be in order to get creative friction.” 

Structures and Architecture of Interdependence

What holds a society together? Beyond buildings and borders, it is the structures of thought, exchange, and shared purpose that define how we connect. The Admirals Residence invites you to an evening of intellectual exchange, artistic reflection, and shared inquiry into the frameworks that underpin our interactions. 

Join us for a salon where open-minded individuals from diverse disciplines will explore the importance of ownership in intellectual property, the values that drive socio-economic interactions, and the balance between infinite rule sets within finite processes. Experience different laws of culture and interaction that teach us interconnectedness.

What will happen … Format & Experience

This salon unfolds over a five-course dinner, designed to reflect the themes of the evening. Table settings will shift between courses, creating dynamic interactions that encourage fresh conversations. Through dialogue, dining, and creative engagement, we will co-create a space where ideas take root and inspire tangible change.

Event Details:
Date: 18.02.2025
Time: 18:30 (Welcome drinks)
Venue: The Admirals Residence, Muizenberg
The dress code is Smart Casual

Click on the button below to request your seat – providing us with the following information…

Seats for this salon are limited, and we curate our guest list to ensure diverse, meaningful contributions to the discussion. If you would like to participate, introduce yourself with your RSVP and share why you are interested in joining this roundtable. Are you bringing your partner & do you have any dietary restrictions?

Reservations & Participation:
To reserve your place, RSVP by: 16.02.2025 via the button below, send an email or direct message via our website or social media links.

This event is donation-based, with contributions going toward enhancing our educational programs and artist residencies.

We look forward to welcoming you to an evening of conversation, connection, and collective imagination at:
The ADMIRALS RESIDENCE, 64 Windermere Rd, 7945 Muizenberg.