ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the drawings of three artists to highlight how their drawings function to contest spatial injustice, violence, and fear within contemporary North American cities. Artists Coco Guzman, Jeffrey Cheung, and Syrus Marcus Ware, all make drawn marks to represent the human form. Each of these artists uses drawing to symbolize and represent very particular bodies – queer and trans bodies, black and brown bodies. To understand how these drawings contest experiences of spatial inequality for racialized and gender diverse citizens, the discussion intersects theory on drawing with that of performance studies. Notably, D.B. Dowd’s concept of the graphic is considered in relation to Diana Taylor’s notion of the repertoire; as well as John Berger’s ruminations on drawing with Honor Ford-Smith’s interpretation of matter-out-of-place.
