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Breathless
Full text linkThe output consists of 17 digital prints designed to explore various ways of visualizing the artist’s interoceptual experiences when suffering from breathing difficulties brought on by the Covid 19 virus.
Research Process: Notebook drawings were made during a period of illness that was brought on due to a covid 19 infection. In particular, various visualisations were made of the state of breathlessness that had been induced by the covid virus. Initial notebook drawings were developed further by both drawing and printmaking processes as Barker recovered from the covid19 virus attack. As these images emerged from the various processes of visualisation, two distinct stages of image formulation were developed. Images from both stages were finally then scanned, processed and developed as digital prints, so that more control could be made over colour variations and to cohere handmade marks with monoprinted and collaged elements. Final digitisation allowed these images to be disseminated online as well as in printed formats.
Research Insights: The research revealed a particular approach to the process of image development, in relation to the visualisation of an experience that had no existing associated images available for reference. Working from very ‘sketchy’ visual notes, the images produced in the first stage of development, were more figurative, relying on memories of analogous experiences of particular places, objects and situations. During the second stage of image development, the imagery became more abstracted, emerging from the processes of materials investigation and more universal in their metaphorical associations.
Dissemination:
The artefacts were exhibited at Workshop Press Gallery, England, 16-30 June 2023. They were also presented at two interoception workshops on 27 July 2023 at the Institute for Health Research and Innovation, University of Porto, Portugal. Additionally, the artefacts were published by i2ADS on 15 December 2023 as part of an article for PSIAX 7
Inconvenient Bodies
Full text linkInconvenient Bodies was an exhibition conceived and created specifically for Hošek Contemporary, a gallery in a converted goods barge.
Research Process: The work consisted of three large chiffon panels printed with images of disused ladies’ public toilets from Manchester, Brighouse and Scarborough. The panels were held up by wooden washing poles on satin rope, and accompanied by thirty small plywood and copper cut-outs of the ‘ladies’ symbol often found on toilet doors.
The research develops Chambers’ interest in the accessibility (or not) of public toilets explored in her performance work Urinary Leash – materialising the precarity of bodies that transgress categorisation. This work has been conceptualised in relation to the feminisation of migratory labour and to the labour of the woman artist.
Research Insights: Inconvenient Bodies is an example of a strategy for producing sculptural works small or compact enough so that they can be transported in the hold of a plane, as a nomadic feral art practice. This strategy highlights the work that artists do beyond the confines of the white cube gallery space.
The production of this series of works prompted Chambers’ further enquiry into the history of women’s public toilets in the UK, and has led into ongoing documentation of public toilet facilities across the UK and in Europe. The findings of this investigation are that women’s public toilets in the UK (established nearly a century after similar facilities for men) have been in steep decline for several decades, unlike their European counterparts. Currently, Chambers has documented 47 women’s public toilets.
Dissemination: The work was exhibited at Hošek Contemporary, Berlin, Germany, 5 – 9 April 2023
Head On
Full text linkThe output is a series of sculptural headpieces by Nicola Dale premiered via a solo exhibition at Bobinska Brownlee, London.
Research Process: ‘Head On’ focussed on sculpture as live experience, with audiences invited to complete the work. Visitors to the exhibition held, wore & moved with the pieces through bespoke artist-led participatory tours. This was done as an exploration of the ways in which sculptural volume can be both implied and mutable. By inhabiting a sculpture, an audience member becomes it, no longer able to see it from a distance. Each becomes the viewed as well as the viewer. Within the collapsed distance, a horizon of touch can be repeatedly established, reached and mediated anew. The tours were tailored to particular groups - including emerging performers (visual art/dance), wider creative communities (art/design), and learning-disabled young people.
Research Insights: By involving the audience directly in the work, ‘Head On’ provided a way into contemporary performance/sculpture for audiences without specialist knowledge. It fostered an appreciation of touch and shared experience. The audience-driven approach promoted contemporary art as something made with audiences, rather than merely for them. It provided opportunity for experiential learning alongside the traditionally passively viewed solo exhibition model.
Dissemination: The research was shared through the solo exhibition (9 - 21st May 2023) at Bobinska Brownlee, and publication with text by critic Cherry Smyth (edition of 50 and as PDF), as well as through five participatory tours for the public over the duration of the exhibition. Documentation from this was archived on the gallery’s and artist’s websites, as well as attendees’ social media and visual art news websites
Viewing Daughters of Darkness through the lens of Queer Fear
No full textLeeds International Film Festival (LIFF) was founded in 1987 and is supported by Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire in the UK. "Queer Fear", which aims to chart queer communities’ lasting association with the horror genre, has been included in the Festival since 2021, previously screening The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963 ) and The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932). In 2022 Queer Fear chose to screen a 4K restoration of Daughters of Darkness (1971) at Vue cinema. When the film had finished there was an opportunity for the audience to discuss, “its enduring impact and legacy of LGBTQIA+ representation and female empowerment within horror, as well as its iconic brand of European erotica”, with the film’s director and co-writer Harry Kümel.
I suggest that the experience of viewing the remastered film in the cinema enhances the visual and haptic qualities that contribute to how the film’s narrative is read and understood by the audience. Costume rather than schlock gore is used to evoke the blood-lust of the vampire. The fabrics, surfaces and textures are important elements that construct meaning and support narrative pleasure. The works of Jennifer Barker and Lauren Marks provide a lens through which Daughters of Darkness can be analysed in regard to how the eye can become an organ of touch. In particular, the Queer Fear screening of Daughters of Darkness opened up opportunities to view its narrative, visual and haptic pleasures that underscore how integral queer discourses are to its meaning
The Deviant Leisure of Gym Bodies, Militarized Branding and Fascistic Creeps
No full textThis chapter explores the rapid acceleration and viral dissemination of masculine fitness culture as a deviant leisure activity (Becker, 1963). We historically situate the current virality of the digitally-networked and gym-built male body, from the advent of physical cultures in the era of The Great Exhibition (1851), to the rapid mainstreaming and growth resulting from the 2008-2009 financial crisis and introduction of social media, to the current triple crises of Covid 19, far-right authoritarianism and identity politics (Hakim, 2020; Chow, 2021, Luger, 2022). We argue that fitness supplements with militaristic, nationalist and violent rhetoric and imagery in their branding and marketing – such as ‘Merica Labz (US), and Grenade and Chemical Warfare (UK) – suggest that gym-built bodies are deviant.
In performing offline and online fitness and bodybuilding culture during Covid 19 lockdowns, deviancy is expressed through societal norms of what are deemed essential, versus non-essential hobbies (Chow, 2021). Secondly, these bodily performers and digital representations, along with the brand-scapes that target this lifestyle, allow for a deviant space of masculinity, juxtaposed against the mainstreaming of feminist, queer and non-white identities, perspectives, and perceived power geometries: in other words, a safe space to perform white-nationalist-masculinity (Cornwall et al., 2011; Olou, 2020). Thirdly, we present this space as a deviant space of class hybridity and fluidity, where the notion or trope of the working-class, industrial, militaristic male body is mimetically adopted by users through the mainstreaming of fitness branding and offline/online gym and body culture (Cornwall et al., 2011; Chow, 2021). Substantively, we suggest that periodic crises (or ‘backloops’, Wakefield, 2020) in neoliberal society, including the Covid 19 pandemic, and the banality of fitness praxis, are helping to catalyse an authoritarian, extremist masculinity, both mirroring and mirrored in chauvinistic political figures on the far-right
Developing critical thinking skills with adult learners in an art school: might a critical thinking manifesto be one way to visualise findings?
Full text linkThis qualitative study is set in a UK art school where participants are adult-learners on a postgraduate course. A 'critical thinking club' is described at work in a constructivist classroom where meaning is built through experiential teaching and learning. Three themes of: barriers in education for adult-learners; scaffolded stages to develop thinking skills; and how practice-focused research could contextualise participants' art-practice are considered and discussed. Adult-learners articulate their thoughts about developing critical thinking in a 'community of inquiry' and results are visualised in a five-point manifesto, leading to a discussion on possible practical ways of operationalising and developing critical thinking with students
Material Nomads
Full text linkThe output is a series of fifty-one artworks exhibited as “feral artist interventions”. The documentation of these interventions was collated and presented alongside text as an artist book.
Research process: A collection of objects were sourced from flea markets and second-hand shops across Europe, which were then taken on a “nomadic” journey. Each of the artworks that make up Material Nomads was one iteration of a transformative process beginning with seventeen objects.
The objects were first taken to England where they were transformed into a series of artworks. The objects were photographed “loitering” in suburban sites and printed as A4 cards; selected images of the objects were printed onto pink chiffon squares, similar to women’s head scarves; Three-dimensional casts were taken of the objects in paper mâché and copper foil.
The artworks were then taken to Moss (Norway) and to Lisbon (Portugal) where they were exhibited as “feral artist interventions”.
Research insights: Nomadism is not aimless wandering, but is rather a methodical rotation of settlements to ensure maximum use of obtainable resources. Nomadism is a spatialised condition of flux where movement is triggered and sustained by various key material actants.
Through the strategy of travelling with art works in a suitcase to install in and around cultural sites as temporary feral interventions, this research provides insights into means of exhibition making which allow for greater accessibility and engagement with audiences across borders.
Dissemination: The interventions were exhibited at Momentum 12 at the Nordic Biennale, Moss, Norway 6 – 7 December 2023. The documentation was collated as an artist book, which was disseminated in the UK and Norway.
The project was presented as at the Lost and Found symposium in Lisbon, December 2023 alongside a feral display of the art works at Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea
We live like trees inside the footsteps of our ancestors
Full text linkThis output is a research exhibition challenging the destructive legacy of colonialism and environmental exploitation, urging a re-examination of the human-nature relationship through curatorial practices.
Collaboration contribution: Curated by Marianna Tsionki and Mariana Cunha, it stems from their collaborative project Reclaiming EcoVisualities, which merges their shared focus on ecological aesthetics, non-anthropocentric thinking, situated knowledge, and non-Western cosmologies.
Research process: The research process behind the exhibition focused on a collaborative, multi-layered approach, distinct from the spectacle-driven formats of many ecologically-themed exhibitions. It involved deep engagement with ecological and decolonial discourses through independent study, extensive knowledge exchange, and close collaboration between researchers-curators and artists. This approach was vital for unravelling complex narratives and ensuring the exhibition was rooted in diverse research perspectives. The accompanying publication further illuminates these practices, bridging the gap between curatorial strategies and public reception while enhancing understanding of the methodologies used.
Research insights: The research revealed how curatorial processes – theoretical and practical- and exhibition design can transform space into an active element of a research narrative. The arrangement of artworks fostered interactions that emphasized thematic connections, allowing visitors to engage with a cohesive story. Complementary talks and materials enhanced accessibility, broadening the exhibition’s reach. This approach highlighted the role of curatorial practice as a research tool, demonstrating how thoughtful curatorial processes shape and articulate research findings. The process showed the successful integration of artistic and research objectives, offering a model for exploring and communicating ecological themes through curatorial methods. Reflections on the process reveal the success of merging artistic and research objectives, offering a model for exploring ecological themes through innovative curatorial methods.
Dissemination: The research was presented at Blenheim Walk Gallery between 12 May and 22 July 2023, with additional student talks, tours, and contextual presentations, including the Archivo Webinar Series 2023 and the CREAM 2023 Summer Social at Westminster University’s Regent Street Cinema
Two Christian Dior Dresses at the Museum
Full text linkThe artefact is a mixed media painting on paper, documenting two Christian Dior dresses curated on Mannequins. The Opera Bouffe (1956) and slender evening dress (1952) shown at the worldwide touring exhibition ‘Christian Dior. Designer of Dreams’ The painting responds to the curation of a historical fashion exhibition.
Research Process: Research was undertaken during a visit to the exhibition at the V&A Museum London in 2019 and from various archives to gather enough research to enable some accuracy when painting the silhouette, colour and silk fabric. This line of enquiry was revisited in 2023. The piece is built up through various layers of paint. The process film records the first layer of the artefact; the evolving signature 1950’s silhouettes, much like pattern cutting construction lines.
Research Insights: Major fashion exhibitions are usually recorded through photography for museum archives, online resources, catalogues and to advertise the exhibition to the public.
The piece offers an alternative way of responding to fashion exhibitions. Painting historical fashion displayed in the museum through a contemporary lens explores an alternative perspective on documentary fashion artistry.
Representing two dresses displayed on mannequins rather than inhabited by a body encourages the viewer to imagine the potential wearer, to connect to the time in history when the dresses were made and appreciate some of the presence of historical Haute Couture garments.
Dissemination: The work was exhibited during an exhibition held at Institute Marangoni Paris
27th -30th September 2023. The artefact was published in the book The Fible 4 V.04. FIDA Worldwide page 61
A Conversation about Ethics: A Deliberative and Practice-Based Approach to Ethics in Arts Education
Full text linkThis article reports on a practice-based research project that examined the various orientations of practice to ethical deliberation. The aim was to produce a film that captured ethical debate between two creative practitioners as they walked through their local streets. The film would be a catalyst for staff and students at an arts institution to think about their own ethical practices. The approach taken was based on Aristotelian notions of phronesis or practical wisdom, which is concerned with making ethical judgments based on deliberation. Issues were raised by the project, such as the tensions between policy and practice and the tensions between aesthetic considerations and ethical practice. Questions about the value of narrative, representation, and learning through doing were raised by the work