Dissertation and practice

Hamish Young is currently studying Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh.

a-n Art Student: Are the choices you make in your visual practice the same sort of choices you made in your dissertation research?

Hamish Young: There are similarities but you have to acknowledge the differences between research for theoretical discourse and an artists’ visual research: the requirements are very different. The expectations of an artwork are different too.

a-n: How are they different?

HY: When writing a dissertation you have to prove your theories and ideas in a formulaic and comparative essay form. I am not sure you can approach an artwork in the same way, there is a different logic.

a-n: How did you think about logic when writing your dissertation?

HY: In essays you are using words and structure to make a reader understand certain logic. You are threading together published ideas from theorists in a transparent way – everything has to be proven and validated. You can only give authority to your voice through the voice of others.

a-n: So, how does this work in making visual art?

HY: On some level it’s a similar process as there’s a form of ‘borrowing’ references when constantly looking around, within your peer group and from within the discourses of contemporary art. This is less acknowledged. But going back to logic and its requirement in, say, an academic essay — discursive ideas and theories can be fixed together to communicate a new logic, to suit what the author is trying to say. There is a similar process within art making, I think, of trying to communicate a type of logic effectively.

a-n: How does this ‘communication of logic’ happen within the making of your own work?

HY: I’m interested in how you can play around with a logic that is formed through engaging with materials and the idea of it being formulated by observing a process. In relation to a specific work, my adventures with clay, a film that reimagines the production of China clay in the South West of England — this came out of a basic awareness that when trying to work with the clay, to cast objects and produce a series of screen prints, it got everywhere: over my clothes, on books, paper. The material itself and its disobedience became an idea for a work that explores its materiality.

a-n: This is interesting in terms of work that is process-led and there are correlations between essay form and visual practice here too; other ideas and references flood in during the course of putting work together. You have to consider where these ideas fit whilst editing down initial thoughts. I can imagine your work, when shown, is a sort of ‘edited logic’, or a selection from a large array or bulk of material…

HY: I do contemplate how to display the work to represent an initial thought. I didn’t simply re-make my studio when thinking about my adventures with clay; it was edited to that extent. Process-led work has the potential to impose its own logic. I think Rosalind E. Krauss said something about Richard Serra’s process work: of its reason being its very “unreason”. My art gives into this material logic too; I let it shape the work to some extent. I am interested in pushing this further.

a-n: It’s an intriguing thought, letting the material taking over with the artist’s role being a close management of its behaviour, before handing the work over to an audience. Does actual research become a part of the process too?

HY: Research becomes an investigative process, you discover something overlooked or reimagine how something came into being. The ideas you discover through researching and writing an essay can re-shape your original intent. In a similar way the material you work with when making, its historical or theoretical sources become a material too and these will determine new outcomes.

a-n: It sounds like you have backed these ideas quite thoroughly and that your research methods have given your work more of a backbone. Can you explain what your dissertation was about?

HY: It was about authorship within the production of an artwork. To what extent can a work be attributed to the artist and, conversely, what are the grounds on which the opposite can be said – that a work can exist independently of its creator.

a-n: How is all of this shaping what you have planned for your degree show?

HY: I want to keep part of myself present but I also want the material I am working with to shape the work’s outcome. It will be a material narrative that reimagines the objects I use, which becomes a strategy for the work’s creation to be visible within the end product.

Jennifer Hare is currently studying Fine Art at University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich.

a-n Art Student: Are the choices you make in your visual practice the same sort of choices you made in your dissertation research?

Jennifer Hare: I am not sure they are the same but the choices I am making in my visual practice have definitely been influenced by my dissertation research. Just as I felt I could only write about the things I felt passionately about; the same goes for my paintings. The experience has informed the way I now analyse my own work, from process and colour to narrative and how others may perceive it.

a-n: It’s interesting your research has made you think more about an audience for your work. Do you feel more comfortable writing about your paintings, now that you have established more of a practice in thinking with words too?

JH: I think one feeds the other: writing helps me paint and vice versa, so yes. As an artist it is all too easy to want to express everything through a visual medium. But there comes a point where written language gives a more thorough understanding and insight to the work.

a-n: What was your dissertation about, and did you come up with its title at the start or did the title develop as you moved forward in your research? This is interesting, as your paintings seem to be led by their subject matter, which sort of inherits content through particular source material.

JH: Writing about my work does not help me choose the image to work from, but it does help me to understand the choice afterwards. My dissertation was about three contemporary portrait painters. The title came much later on when I began discovering more about the artists and their work. They all relied on visual media as a source material but had vastly different styles.

a-n: Your paintings, which depict close up portraits of scenes from popular film, could be read as a process you undergo to appropriate existing visual imagery. Perhaps style has less of a role to play in this process; maybe it’s more about the idea of re-interpreting something. You can correct any misreading there! But it is interesting; we have only seen your work online and read about it on your blog. It seems their content goes deeper and perhaps this is now enriched by your dissertation research?

JH: It is about re-interpreting and that is the reason I paint; just by the act of painting the picture can take on a different mood. I think there are so many images for artists to paint from; all you need is Google search. It is more about how you paint. My dissertation showed me that everything we do is shaped by our past experiences and that certainly relates to the way I look at and paint film.

a-n: On your blog you almost add descriptors to your paintings. The text you put together looks at strands, sources and approaches to painting. How do you approach writing titles for the works? And, when you envisage hanging them in an exhibition, do you think they’ll be shown in series or as individual works?

JH: Describing my work is a way of allowing the audience to understand the connection between the paintings. I see them all as one subject and therefore one work. Although this work is still in progress, I need to try out exhibiting them in different ways to see what works best. I do think my ‘faces’ will look good grouped together but my painting with the guns, Mike and Marcus want some Candy, that has a strong narrative on its own.

As for titles, I am still deciding, sometimes a line from the film pops into my head, creating a feeling of knowing the character, even though we know they’re fictional. I think my dissertation has made me work on my paintings with a more structured approach. But there is still a lot more experimentation to come and I intend to write more about the trials and tribulations along the way.

a-n: What do you have planned for your degree show? What will you show and how will you show it, or, like the dissertation title — will this be decided much closer to the time of exhibiting?

JH: In writing we have to find connections and join up the dots, then edit out what is not needed. I will be using the same process for planning my degree show. I would like to work on one central piece, on a larger scale, to mimic a more cinematic feel. My faces work well as one collective piece but – as I mentioned before – the Mike and Marcus want some Candy piece has a narrative all of it’s own. I think I have to find the link between the two. I may exhibit in an enclosed room with the idea of creating the feel of entering a theatre, immersed by the images in front of you. And I have not yet ruled out the possibility of sound accompanying the paintings too… But I don’t want to limit what the work could become just yet. Its important not to have too rigid an idea of what and how you want something like this to be.

Connect with Jennifer and read more about her practice here.

Eilidh Wilson is in her final year studying Art, Philosophy, Contemporary Practices at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.

a-n Art Student: Are the choices you make in your visual practice the same sort of choices you made in your dissertation research?

Eilidh Wilson: Research in art practice and philosophy are surprisingly similar and when studying the two in unison I found they merged into one. As you develop an understanding of a philosopher’s writing it becomes a reflection upon your art. But the problem with research is there is too much available, you end up getting lost in the reading and forget your original intentions. This is my favourite part: the choices I make come from reading almost too much and the outcomes of my writing and visual practice, they are the result of a long slog of learning a lot but finding little to do with it.

a-n: It seems you create problems and confusion in your work, not to be solved or remedied but to actually deal with the nature of them – almost as a medium. But there must be solutions involved too?

EW: There is no doubt about the pain of the confusion I create for myself. But I always find the process is rewarding and, eventually, my ideas at the start can be incorporated into newfound knowledge. A useful habit I have adopted from writing my dissertation is reading a piece of text repeatedly over a period of time, the more I read it, the more my level of understanding grows.

a-n: What connections can you make between what your dissertation was and what your practice now is?

EW: When writing my dissertation I learned that, as long as you are interested in a topic, you can be as concise as you please ­— but your ideas will never be concrete. Thoughts always progress to new ideas that reach new conclusions and my practice now has the ability to grow and take on new forms with me. I inform the creation of my work along with new knowledge and, as long as it has a basis of a philosophical concept, the work will grow in its own capacity to learn something new.

a-n: You have talked a lot about research and writing, but how does this actually manifest in your studio practice? How do you deal with an idea that potentially never completes itself?

EW: My dissertation incorporated politics of humanitarian rights and strategies behind Grassroots movements. The decision to welcome politics into my work was justified through reading newspapers, evaluating and expanding upon what they represent. My research was an extension of how I have become an activist within society. I wanted to make art that aimed to visualise the core of this tension and how it has formed into international campaigns. From this my work became a metaphor for the problems we face in society. My studio practice has become a reaction to these problems and uses the idea of resistance as a way of dealing with them.

I am currently working on a vast series of prints of images of protests throughout Scotland, and have the vision of globalising this idea by using different countries over the coming years as new sources of imagery. Movements are part of a progression of time and I see my work as a part of this progression too. I do not have a problem with an idea never completing itself. As Gilles Deleuze would say, “we live in a world of constant change.”

a-n: So, writing clearly has a place in your studio practice, but its is also key for seeing through the task of completing a dissertation. Let’s talk a little more about ‘problems’, how do you use writing to get around them in your work?

EW: I think problems in your work come from problems within your own perspective. For example I was having several issues with organising an event that would demonstrate media bias, the main difficulty being my naïve attitude towards the potential of the event. Problems are inherent in yourself; it’s more about how you learn to deal with them by stepping back, taking time to reflect. Writing is my method of processing this, allowing myself time to visualise ideas.

a-n: I think we have created some interesting discussion here Eilidh. You’ve woven a good introduction to how you use research in your studio practice; it clearly plays an important role. Lastly, what do you have planned for your degree show? I’m sure it will be a rewarding progression in your work, to create an instance where your research is outwardly facing, with an audience in mind…

EW: It will present a visual guide of the nature of resistance for the viewer to discover. I will keep the works black and white, to create a historical atmosphere, but reality is brought forward in them too as they are prints of recent images. As a collection they will document events and conversations, creating points of tension that will be turned into something positive. As an activist and artist I want to reach into the minds of those who think that their opinion will never be heard. I want the prints, which are of people voicing their opinion, to give the viewer the confidence to do the same.

Connect with Eilidh and read more about her practice here.