Thursday, November 17, 2011

In between things...




The in between things of writing and research...someone recently asked me if I thought doing post- grad studies really benefited ones art making...it was asked in a way that I felt was already answered in a negative light...the questioning of the value of the process that requires students/artists to engage in a split program of research and studio practice can only be answered by each individuals reasons for placing themselves in such a position...my reasoning for entering into the post-grad program was decided on two things...the most fickle was that it provided the greatest opportunity to get out of a once interesting and culturally layered town that had suddenly become immersed in the regimented and sterile persona of the mining industry...a process of formulated cultural homicide that is being carried out within small communities by the mining industry throughout Australia...the second reason was that it was a decisive moment in simply surrendering myself to a creative life...I continuously question the formulaic structure that is provided by art institutions...I'm not convinced that the research structure encourages the opportunity for 'new creative knowledge'...it is a rather naive view but if what I am writing about was to be as connected as closely as possible to what I make then my research component would for me at least read as a blend of diaristic, free association and poetic references...the writing would find its own sense of making sense... I feel that the creative process needs to flow into the academic writing... for myself the articulation unfolds like a conversation in the process of making...the kind of making that leaves you wondering if it was really you who made it...a conversation that can ever only be re-presented as a reflective process of interpretation...something secondary...I talk to too many students who find themselves second guessing what it is they make because it doesn't fit into a formulaic conceptual frame...I guess like water we find our own levels...this wasn't the answer I responded with...I think I simply said I was still finding out...sp

  

2 comments:

  1. your comments resonate strongly with me - I am neck deep into my arty Higher Degree.... (which I commenced straight after completing my coursework masters....)

    academicising the (often mysterious) creative process is not without problems and pitfalls - not least among them that visual work threatens to be swamped by an avalanche of words...

    many folk also ask me why I'm completing a HD - for me its a pragmatic choice: I live a long way from anywhere really and I'm well outside the general arty circles - completing my coursework masters (oh I do all this by distance btw) really helped me clarify my thoughts and making, the HD is helping me link thoughts, making and writing in a cohesive and clear manner.....

    but its not always easy or a joy eh

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  2. this red circle showed up in a search for red circles on the internet... I just stitched with red thread on a rusted hankie that was a gift from another artist & felt that the marks were made in a long history of red circles... thank you for sharing your work it is always so clear & strong, full of space and deep mystery & questioning.

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