TABLEAU VIVANT / UNSW Drawing Research Group

In April DRAW Space presented TABLEAU VIVANT / UNSW Drawing Research Group. Open from 11am Thursday 9 April to 5pm Sunday 26 April.

A floor talk took place from 3-4pm on Saturday 11 April, with artists David Eastwood, Karen Kriss, Guy Lobwein, Anna Tow and Cindy Yuen-Zhe Chen.

Tableau Vivant presents the outcomes of collaborative experiments undertaken by members of the UNSW Drawing Research Group (DRG). The project investigates drawing as a live field of peripheral, ambient and embodied phenomena beyond the static page. 

Developed through a series of workshops held in UNSW Art & Design's ‘Black Box’ facility, the creative methods adopted range across a variety of mark‑making practices combined with motion‑capture technology, ceiling‑mounted video recording, and 3D scanning. Centred on the concept of the tableau vivant, or “living picture”, the exhibition frames drawing as a dynamic process shaped by bodies moving through space and augmented by digital technologies, with outcomes featuring time-lapse video, animation, real-time interactive 3D graphics, and works on paper. 

The UNSW Drawing Research Group brings together artists, designers, and academics working across analogue and digital media. Tableau Vivant presents collaborative experiments that explore drawing as an expanded, embodied practice. The exhibition developed through an evolving process of workshops, working with technology (3D scanning, motion capture, 3D visualisation) alongside handmade drawing processes to give form to movement, data, and embodied experience. Engaging with multi-figure compositions, the exhibition envisions drawing as a living, dynamic form.

– David Eastwood and Karen Kriss

This project was led by Karen Kriss and David Eastwood and supported by a grant from the UNSW School of Art & Design. The DRG comprises permanent academic staff, sessional academics and Higher Degree Research candidates from the UNSW School of Art & Design. The members participating in the exhibition are:

  • Jane Michaele Cameron

  • Cindy Yuen‑Zhe Chen

  • Yvonne East

  • David Eastwood

  • Sarah Eddowes

  • Todd Fuller

  • Karen Kriss

  • Guy Lobwein

  • Eva Nolan

  • Kurt Schranzer

  • Peter Sharp

  • Anna Tow

UNSW Drawing Research Group, Tableau Vivant, 2026. Digital image rendered from a 3D model.

Anna Tow, Motion Ghosts (video still), 2026. Digital animation.

Kurt Schranzer, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 2026. Pigment ink on cotton rag paper, 65cm x 140cm.

Next

Peter Sharp + Michelle Cawthorn / SECOND FIDDLE