Research Catalogue

research expositions

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  An Obstract for Midpointness (2018) author(s): Andrew Bracey, Steve Dutton published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
  Our aim here is to both provide a response to the Conference ‘Please Specify!’ and to find an alternate way of ensuring that the intrinsic generative nature of research and art is kept active, akin to the mobius strip-like path of both conclusions, and openings. “Midpointness” is a generative project. It is dismantled and reconstructed through the gradual accretion of surrounding connections, associations and influences of the curators, artists, students and other audiences who contribute to it. These are in the form of artworks, public events, texts, artefacts, performances or other interventions. 'An Obstract for Midpointness' (Obstract)is a piece of artistic research constructed before, during and after, "PLEASE SPECIFY!", The SAR Annual Conference 2017. 'Obstract' is as an element of the ongoing project “Midpointness” that seeks to invite us to consider the ‘work’ of art as art’s labour or task. We seek to explore the dynamics of inner/outer dialogues of the process of artistic work, opening up other potentials that an artist researcher might hope for when he/she explores the generative potential of the work of artistic research directly within and in response to a conference about artistic research. At the centre is spoken text that is a play on the tradition of the conference ‘abstract.’ The abstract is the site of an outline of intention, yet here we couple it with an ‘obstruction’ as a means of aggravating and diverting the attempt at a conclusion towards which an abstract, and indeed a formal presentation, might be aimed. “Obstract” suggests, by a process of intervention that the ‘centre’ (the work and/or the text) and its surrounding universe are completely indivisible. As such the principle of ‘footnotes’ filter through to the whole spoken text; the footnotes being analogous to the surrounding constellations within which the ‘centre’ of the work sits, swapping footnotes for centre and vice versa. The footnotes refer to points both real and imagined in the past, present and future.
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  Painting as Discourse (last edited: 2019) author(s): Andrew Bracey This exposition is in progress.
  '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.
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  Self-ish Portraits (last edited: 2022) author(s): Andrew Bracey This exposition is in progress.
  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.
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