In the 1960s, the Dutch Zero artist Jan Schoonhoven put an end to the history of the hand-drawn line in art. In a zen-like state of mind, he drew line after line, time and again until he had filled up a sheet of paper, and form and content had anonymously (but still beautifully) been thrown overboard. However, in a performance-like setting that was typical of the video art of the 1970s, Bert Schutter explored new methods of producing lines. In Producing Lines 1, a red line has been drawn high up the wall of an atelier, like a measuring ruler. The artist jumps up to draw vertical lines downwards with a piece of chalk. The first line he draws almost hits the mark, but the jumping wears him out, so that each new line starts lower than the one before. Finally the …rtist walks away, exhausted. He has failed to reach the red line. He was not up to it physically, but his limitations have actually yielded a very specific drawing. In Producing Lines 2, the lines are drawn as a registration of the electric activity of the artist's brain. This activity makes for a heavily vibrating pattern and yields an equally specific drawing - determined by autonomous characteristics of the body of this particular artist. Read more...