Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency - Clew: A Rich and Rewarding DIsorientation
(2024)
author(s): Lauren O'Neal
published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
This exposition examines the curatorial project "Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation," held at the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in 2017. The project is part of my doctoral research on “Assembling a Praxis: Choreographic Thinking and Curatorial Agency.” “Clew” proposes a framework for curatorial dramaturgy and asks: What is the potential of a dramaturgical approach within an open-ended exhibition structure? Who, or what, is the curatorial dramaturg? How do materials and time contribute to unfolding exhibition narratives?
[This exposition corresponds to Section Six: Extending Lines in All Directions: Curatorial Dramaturgy in the printed dissertation.]
Governmental Regulations on Volatile Organic Compounds in Paint
(2023)
author(s): Hajra Rahim
published in: Research Catalogue
Previous researchers have found that the use of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), carcinogens, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in paints have led to a wide range of health issues. This led to the primary goal within my research in which I examined the extent to which the quality level of paint is affected by chemical levels and pricing through the use of interviews with manufacturers from different paint companies, as well as the extent to which regulations from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) have limited the amounts of chemicals in paints. From this, I found that most companies are only restricted in levels of VOC and carcinogenic use, rather than PFAS since they are a necessary component of most paints, including within the linseed oil of oil paints, the pigments of watercolors and the pigments and solution of acrylic paints. Additionally, I found that these chemicals can affect one if they touch the surface of the skin or are inhaled, meaning that even dry paintings or painted walls could be toxic. The outcome emphasizes the necessity of wearing a mask while using these products, using warning signs on consumer products, as well as educating artists and those who are exposed to paints consistently to stay cautious.
Can I Paint It? Exploring the 'Art-tool' Method in Anthropology
(2019)
author(s): Paola Tine
published in: Research Catalogue
This essay is divided in two sections: a theoretical reflection on the premises and advantages of painting in anthropological research, and a practical experiment. The first section offers a proposal for the use of painting within anthropological outcomes as an important tool for representing the feelings of the researcher and of the people observed, as well as mediating between their perspectives. Additionally, the proposed visual essay, entitled ‘City and Nature’ is a visual exploration of human life within the modern globalised world, focusing on nature and consumerism through dark surreal images. The exploration of the possibilities of expression offered by artistic practice can be a great way to explore the sphere of perception and interpretation, that deeper world of meanings and understandings, that is the real heart of anthropology.
Marking the passage of time in space
(2017)
author(s): Lucila Nalvarte Maddox
published in: Research Catalogue
This text presents painting as a visual mechanism with which to communicate the otherwise invisible concept of the limitless passage of time in space. To do so, it demonstrates a series of ways through which the mind negotiates with the hand to process painting materials and techniques as part of an attempt to materialise the invisible. Consequently, the act of painting itself becomes both subject and motivating force. This project was first envisioned whilst travelling on a train high up in the Andes. My curiosity, although frightening was well rewarded when suddenly I noticed that the train tracks were not only limitless, but also invisible due to the speed of the train. At that moment, time and space became both eternal and invisible. Elucidating the invisible through sensory and non-sensory perception is not an easy task, for it implicates a conundrum that is no longer exclusively the domain of science but rather that of art and philosophy working in concert.
A Place for Painting
(2016)
author(s): Andreas Siqueland
published in: Norwegian Artistic Research Programme
My practice as a painter deals with notions of repetition, displacement and reenactment, often in relationship to nature. From 2009 to 2013 I was enrolled in the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. Through the fellowship I wanted to learn more about the particular circumstances that influence the decision-making taking place on the canvas. I decided to go on a search for A Place for Painting.
For many years I used photographs as a way to remember landscapes. I would use them to go on extended journeys in painting. With the advent of the digital age, the time between taking and developing and distributing images collapsed. At the same time, I saw my paintings gradually shifted in character. It felt as if there was lack of presence in the brushstrokes. I associated this with a dependency on the photographic medium as a model and source material for new painting. Photography seemed to disconnect me from observing what was actually happening on the canvas and how this was related to the outside. To make my experiences visible, I needed a more direct translation of the world. I imagined a search for a place for painting to rediscover the connection painting has to its surroundings. This led to a series of journeys to see how changes in geographical location would influence my work. As part of the investigation, I returned to the tradition of plein air painting. For me, this felt like the most direct way in which I could study how painting interacts with a physical place, while also addressing the subject of place in painting.
Plein air painting necessitated working outside the architectural constraints of the studio. The variables of the outdoors raised fundamental questions about color, light, composition and the act of painting itself. I began experimenting with different studio models that I hoped could open up new relationships to nature and new modes of production. To further explore this repositioning and the interactive relationship that resulted, I decided to build a mobile outdoor studio using my own loft studio in Oslo as a model. The result was Winterstudio. This essay gives an account of the research and thinking that informed the building of this structure, the experience of working within it at two different locations and its subsequent influence on my work in the studio in Oslo. The focus is on a contemporary painting practice, but should be relevant to anyone interested in exploring the conditions and context of artistic production today.
Self-ish Portraits
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Andrew Bracey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
My position is that knowledge about an artist and their work can be uncovered through close looking at their work and that some of this knowledge can be held and transferred tacitly to viewers (that are also artists). This knowledge can be articulated through practice, in this case in the making and subsequent close looking and reflection of the Selfish Portrait paintings. Because the knowledge is tacit, as opposed to propositional, the knowledge may be sensed, felt or difficult to articulate in words. Practice is the most appropriate vehicle to test whether this knowledge can shift from what Alexis Shotwell’s has articulated as ‘nonpropositional knowledge’ to ‘potentially propositional knowledge’.
In Selfish Portraits I search for self-portraits by a range of dead artists in terms of geography, gender, race, ‘status’, time of working, style, etc. This necessitates (re)searching beyond my current knowledge base using gallery visits, internet searches and books. The selected self portrait(s) are subjected to a period of ‘looking attentively’ in order to visual interrelate and learn about the painting, and by extension the artist. The main focus is allowing the self portraits to ‘talk to me’ following the theoretical stance of the ‘active’ painting or picture, that knowledge is held in the painting itself and cannot always be found in (written) documentation.
Animated Ecology
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Lina Persson
connected to: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In these works I have explored how I can relate to my environment through my daily practices of teaching, eating, animating etc. I begun the project by improvising lectures for various audiences I wanted to have input from. I have lectured to all possible enteties in the ecosystem I am a part of, from blueberries to colleagues to films. Every time something new continues to take shape. The exposition include essays, paintings and animations.
Painting as Discourse
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Andrew Bracey
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
'Painting-As-Discourse' is a methodology to complement painting practice with a reflection of “on action and in action” (Gray & Malins, 2004, p21) that is central to the research and its findings. Selected individuals (from a range of expertise and levels of knowledge of the author's research) have partaken ‘Painting-As-Discourse’ conversations with Bracey in regard to one body of practice (ReconFigure Paintings), through the course of his PhD. In this way the artistic researcher has been encouraged and challenged about what he is saying verbally about the practice and being encouraged to respond to new readings and possibilities for the research. Each conversations is then used to form an ongoing series of revised statements about the work, following the approach of Elizabeth Price’s ‘Sidekick’ (Price, 2006). Each revised statement is given to the most recent 'Painting-As-Discourse' participant prior to the conversation to act as a spur for the conversation.
Gray, C. and Malins, J. (2004), Visualising Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design. Ashgate.
Price, E. “Sidekick.” In Thinking Through Art, edited by Macleod, K. & Holdridge, L. (2006), Oxford and New York: Routledge, p122-132.
Duncan Higgins- Down on the farm
(last edited: 2017)
author(s): Duncan Higgins
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Higgins, D. Down On The Farm (DOTF)- 2015 ongoing.
Artefacts produced in collaboration, partnership and financial support with Latvian National Museum of Art Riga, Lithuanian National museum of Art Kaunas, Latvian and Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and Solovky State Museum Reserve Russia and ACE.
DOTF is being critically evaluated through a series of one-person exhibitions, publications, web presence and education programme that builds on previous research ‘unloud’ 2004 -2014. DOTF is using artistic research to articulate and contribute to the dialectic narratives that are forming from the legacy of particular Soviet histories. It asks how the ‘image’ and the act of ‘making images’ combined with ‘where the image performs’ can offer ways to question, negotiate, communicate or describe moments of erasure or remembering in direct reference to specific cultural narratives. This is situated through an ongoing unique study of The Solovki archipelago in north Russia, site of the most sacred founding Russian Orthodox monastery that was also Stalin’s ‘mother’ of Russian gulags and inter-related narrative historical episodes. DOTF utilises practice based artistic research and autoethnographic methods to explore and contests how to (re) integrate artefacts and actions through art into historically active conversations concerning specific contemporary narrative experiences of violence, displacement and testimony.
The work articulates with contemporary questions of ethics and representation addressed in particular by the Russian painter Borisov, filmmakers Goldovskaya, M and Goddard, JL and theorists Herling,G Agamben,G, Arendt,H, Applebaum,A, Alexsevich,S and Didi-Huberman,G. The distinctive contribution of DOTF to this debate is to situate painting in relation to the contested role of documentary photography and film-making, both through the process by which it came about, and its form when presented. Utilising polyphonic narrative structures and numerous interwoven material montages to contest indexical or capricious documentary facts.