Experience of Resistance -The Potential of Materiality and Spatiality in Artistic Research
(2015)
author(s): Riikka Makikoskela
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
The working title of my doctoral research is Relation Between Idea, Means and End in Three-dimensional Art Making. By making art, I study how a three-dimensional artwork evolves. I employ a phenomenological research approach in my practice-led, artistic research.
In this exposition, I present one of the case studies of my dissertation, a sculpture called From A Container to A Room for A Female Elk (2011, porcelain, glazed stoneware, rutile and Ikea table, 70 x 50 x 50 cm). I describe in detail the process of creating this artwork, for it discloses the potential of materiality and spatiality in artistic research: the experience of resistance (Biesta 2012). This phenomenon occurs in my art practice, and I study it from within the same activity. While pursuing three-dimensional artworks, I move both the materials and my own body. In my research, I analyze this aspect of three-dimensional art practice through the phenomenological theory of embodiment. In order to stay close to the experiential, I integrate academic research with the art practice. Only the confrontation with the evolving artwork may reveal the material resistance in this art practice.