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This collection explores critical and visual practices through the lens of interactions and intersections between pattern and chaos. The dynamic of the inter-relationship between pattern and chaos is such as to challenge disciplinary boundaries, critical frameworks and modes of understanding, perception and communication, often referencing the in-between territory of art and science through experimentation and visual scrutiny. A territory of 'pattern-chaos' or 'chaos-pattern' begins to unfold.
Drawing upon fields such as visual culture, sociology, physics, neurobiology, linguistics or critical theory, for example, contributors have experimented with pattern and/or chaos-related forms, processes, materials, sounds and language or have reflected on the work of other artists, scientists and scholars. Diagrams, tessellations, dust, knots, mazes, folds, creases, flux, virus, fire and flow are indicative of processes through which pattern and chaos are addressed. The contributions are organized into clusters of subjects which reflect the interdisciplinary terrain through a robust, yet also experimental, arrangement. These are 'Pattern Dynamics', 'Morph Flux Mutate', 'Decompose Recompose', 'Virus; Social Imaginary' and 'Nothings in Particular'. Find out more: link to Intellect website |
PhD Abstract (2017)
Decoration: Disrupting the Workplace and Challenging the Work of Art
This practice-led research proposes that decoration can be deployed as a lens for the illumination and interrogation of class and hierarchy when used in artworks which address the workplace. Photographic topologies conducted for the research highlight hierarchical values exemplified in the workplace; they are revealed as alienating places where, on the whole, luxury and decoration are restrained or only considered appropriate for those in seniority.
Looking at the ways in which space is organised (Lefebvre 1991) and how this can be contested though the introduction of site-related art (Deutsche 1996; Mouffe 2007), the spatial interventions made for this research are intended to ‘puncture’ the workplace and allow for the interrogative quality that Deutsche demands of art in public places. The artworks highlight hierarchical values and, at the same time, disturb these values through their placement, materials, form, method of production and their singularity. The language of decoration provides connective qualities which offset this criticality and afford the artwork a negotiating potential, providing a politics of pleasure. Thus, these decorative artworks possess dual value in critiquing aspects of status and alienation in the workplace while at the same time contributing an ameliorative function.
The use of decorative elements in artworks and the placement of such artworks in work-related contexts is made in close relationship to theoretical readings. These include references to the ‘everyday’ (Lefebvre 1947, 1962; de Certeau 1984) which propose that it is through praxis that the individual is able to respond creatively using tactics of bricolage and re-appropriation to alter the conditions of everyday life. The everyday working practices of the workplace are further considered in relation to the work of the artist and the ‘work’ of art. Secondly, the practice is informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus (1979) as a way of conceptualising class and which, in its attention to the predispositions of the individual, is able to encompass attitudes to decoration. Together with the practice itself, these approaches address the interrogative and disruptive agency of the decorative in fine art practice.
'Teaching Painting: How Can Painting Be Taught In Art Schools?' (eds.Ian Hartshorne, Donal Moloney and Magnus Quaife)
including paper co-written with Sarah Longworth-West: '10 + EXTEND: How can we teach painting to students who already think they know what painting is?'
Copied from book cover:
'The ways in which painting is taught within art schools and academies has undergone several significant changes in recent years. As the barriers between media have eroded into more fluid borders, art schools have responded by adapting and evolving. Many painting departments have been absorbed into general fine art courses, but specialist painting courses and pathways still continue to be developed. How have these courses defined and redefined themselves to reflect the current artistic landscape, and how can painting maintain an identity within non-specialist approaches?
Teaching Painting addresses the historical, theoretical, pedagogical and continually shifting methods by which the medium is taught. It asks how and why approaches to teaching painting have changed and developed, and offers a platform through which practices and experiences can be shared.'
For further information see: link to Amazon.co.uk
'Taught' (2013) accompanying text
References to both the office and to domestic environments explore the complicated relationships between work and home, using fabric and decoration as significant components. Fabric is a ubiquitous material usually associated with the body and soft furnishings and used with other materials prompts a number of possible ‘readings’ within the work. Materials and objects are removed from their usual contexts and potential functions are complicated by some implausibility or contradiction of the objects making.
'Test Preenrol' (2012) accompanying text
My recent work uses fabric as its main component, a ubiquitous material usually associated with the body and with soft furnishings. Using mixed materials - rubber, suedette, cord, etc. - the work prompts a number of different readings. Clasps, buckles and cord stoppers intimate possible functions which are then undermined by some implausibility or contradiction of the objects making. Removing materials from their usual domestic contexts the work seeks to explore the everyday, commonplace qualities of fabric as an alternative sculptural medium.
Decoration: Disrupting the Workplace and Challenging the Work of Art
This practice-led research proposes that decoration can be deployed as a lens for the illumination and interrogation of class and hierarchy when used in artworks which address the workplace. Photographic topologies conducted for the research highlight hierarchical values exemplified in the workplace; they are revealed as alienating places where, on the whole, luxury and decoration are restrained or only considered appropriate for those in seniority.
Looking at the ways in which space is organised (Lefebvre 1991) and how this can be contested though the introduction of site-related art (Deutsche 1996; Mouffe 2007), the spatial interventions made for this research are intended to ‘puncture’ the workplace and allow for the interrogative quality that Deutsche demands of art in public places. The artworks highlight hierarchical values and, at the same time, disturb these values through their placement, materials, form, method of production and their singularity. The language of decoration provides connective qualities which offset this criticality and afford the artwork a negotiating potential, providing a politics of pleasure. Thus, these decorative artworks possess dual value in critiquing aspects of status and alienation in the workplace while at the same time contributing an ameliorative function.
The use of decorative elements in artworks and the placement of such artworks in work-related contexts is made in close relationship to theoretical readings. These include references to the ‘everyday’ (Lefebvre 1947, 1962; de Certeau 1984) which propose that it is through praxis that the individual is able to respond creatively using tactics of bricolage and re-appropriation to alter the conditions of everyday life. The everyday working practices of the workplace are further considered in relation to the work of the artist and the ‘work’ of art. Secondly, the practice is informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus (1979) as a way of conceptualising class and which, in its attention to the predispositions of the individual, is able to encompass attitudes to decoration. Together with the practice itself, these approaches address the interrogative and disruptive agency of the decorative in fine art practice.
'Teaching Painting: How Can Painting Be Taught In Art Schools?' (eds.Ian Hartshorne, Donal Moloney and Magnus Quaife)
including paper co-written with Sarah Longworth-West: '10 + EXTEND: How can we teach painting to students who already think they know what painting is?'
Copied from book cover:
'The ways in which painting is taught within art schools and academies has undergone several significant changes in recent years. As the barriers between media have eroded into more fluid borders, art schools have responded by adapting and evolving. Many painting departments have been absorbed into general fine art courses, but specialist painting courses and pathways still continue to be developed. How have these courses defined and redefined themselves to reflect the current artistic landscape, and how can painting maintain an identity within non-specialist approaches?
Teaching Painting addresses the historical, theoretical, pedagogical and continually shifting methods by which the medium is taught. It asks how and why approaches to teaching painting have changed and developed, and offers a platform through which practices and experiences can be shared.'
For further information see: link to Amazon.co.uk
'Taught' (2013) accompanying text
References to both the office and to domestic environments explore the complicated relationships between work and home, using fabric and decoration as significant components. Fabric is a ubiquitous material usually associated with the body and soft furnishings and used with other materials prompts a number of possible ‘readings’ within the work. Materials and objects are removed from their usual contexts and potential functions are complicated by some implausibility or contradiction of the objects making.
'Test Preenrol' (2012) accompanying text
My recent work uses fabric as its main component, a ubiquitous material usually associated with the body and with soft furnishings. Using mixed materials - rubber, suedette, cord, etc. - the work prompts a number of different readings. Clasps, buckles and cord stoppers intimate possible functions which are then undermined by some implausibility or contradiction of the objects making. Removing materials from their usual domestic contexts the work seeks to explore the everyday, commonplace qualities of fabric as an alternative sculptural medium.