Eglė Petraškaitė

Swirlings (Speedy, Gestural Drawings) is an investigation on creating an alphabet of “characters” (letterforms/protagonists) and exploring when movement becomes images and even narratives—how these characters become its own language. Simultaneously it looks into different methods of rendering manual and digital making processes. Swirlings are characters that are based on the gesture of hand when drawing. Fast movement of the drawing is a method for generating shapes and cultivating an ever-growing library. However, in remaking these drawings digitally, speedy gestures turn into slow and calculated efforts.

Although the work is rooted in type design, it shifts and grows within other mediums such as wall drawings and mobiles. The site-specific wall drawing installations allow the work to exist on a large scale and have more weed-like quality to grow. Kinetic mobiles enable the Swirlings to drift and swing in the air, referring to itself—an action to swirl, creating a shapeshifting installation.