This research study ennploys practice-based strategies through which material
processes might be opened to new meaning in relation to the feminine. The
purpose of the written research component is to track the material processes
constituting a significant part of the research findings.
Beginning with historical research into artistic and critical responses to Helen
Frankenthaler's painting, Mountains and Sea, I argue that unacknowledged male
desire distorted and consequently marginalised reception of her work. I then work
with the painting processes innovated by Frankenthaler and relate these to a range
of feminist ideas relating to the corporeal, especially those with origins in Irigaray's
writings of the 1980s.
The research involves three discrete bodies of work. The first, Inscriptions,
explores the relation between visual processes and textual ideas. The second,
Screen / Paintings, is a re-enactment of formalist decisions that attempts to
recover the body in the work. The third, Photoworks, is an attempt to 'jam' vision
whilst redirecting process through the unconscious and touch.
Each body of work gave rise to a practice text. In these texts, ideas that informed
or were triggered by making are unearthed. Material processes are understood as
a reiteration of themes (or issues) in relation to the feminine. These include: the
relation between text and the visual, corporeality in making, the interplay between
conscious and unconscious processes, and control / uncontrol. These ideas are
reformulated in each body of made work. My approach maps out a method of
working that is non-predictive and deliberately situated on the margins of control.
Date of Award | 2003 |
---|
Original language | English |
---|
Awarding Institution | |
---|
The Materiality of Text and Body in Painting and Darkroom Processes: An Investigation through Practice
Robinson, D. (Author). 2003
Student thesis: PhD