February 2025 Issue 1

Studio Notes and Notations

Lucy Raven

Here are a few snapshots of some of the ways I plot out visual works in my studio. I draw a lot, and I also make written notes. Usually they intermingle on scrap paper I have lying around as ideas occur to me. Sometimes these fragments end up becoming writing that exists alongside the work. For example, for an exhibition I had at Dia Chelsea in 2021, we made a publication—a kind of extended zine—at the same time, for which we commissioned texts alongside a text I also wrote. I had so many images as notes for my work in the show as well as the text , and we decided to use them for the end papers of the magazine (imaged here).

Often I'll map out individual pieces or bodies of work as a kind of storyboard of images and bits of writing pinned on the wall of my studio. I just keep adding and rearranging them as I go. Once I get to a certain stage in a longer piece, I'll usually draw its structure as I imagine it. One of these for my new film is included here.