Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Fiona Enright

Parer(Bode)gon

"A drawing in a mathematics textbook is like a frame containing a painting. Each contextualizes a “subject,” signals the use or meaning of an object, and tells us how to consider it. A frame tells us that what it holds is art, and a mathematic drawing tells us how and where we use, or could use, a formula. Each is integral to understanding the use and/or meaning of the subject. An art gallery, a label, and other contextual information can also serve as the, “frame,” for an artwork. Derrida expresses that parergon as not only the “supplement” itself but also as the relationship that exists between the supplement and what it is thought to peripheral or subservient to. He encourages his readers to reverse the common approach to analysing a text: instead of analysing the core information and then the peripheral information (or ignore the peripheral information all together), he advises one to approach the peripheral in the same manner that one would engage with core information. Hypothetically, this reversal would reveal unacknowledged or hidden aspects of a text that could have a significant bearing on its interpretation. By ignoring or undermining supplements, one might disregard crucial information." Fiona Enright 'Section V, Part b' The Human Element: Information, Knowledge and Art in the Digital Episteme, 2021