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An exploration of impermanence in contemporary ceramic art practice

This practice-led research investigates clay-based impermanent creativity, exploring this means of expression as a contribution to knowledge in the expanded field of contemporary ceramic art practice. The research considers recent developments in innovative work by practitioners from the ceramic tradition, characterised by unconventional uses of material, natural decay and weathering, deliberate destruction, performance and physicality. A key aspect of the research exploration is phenomenographic alignment of personal praxical development with that of contemporaries sharing backgrounds in the ceramic tradition. A case study approach based on a reflexive Schönian and Kolbian cycle is utilised and research material is viewed from trans-disciplinary perspectives to explore and elucidate its nature, impacts and implications. Impermanence in clay is found to de-familiarise art work, altering and enhancing the creative role of percipients. Relationships between work, maker and percipient are explored. Mediatisation of impermanent clay-based art is considered for its impact on work’s reception and interpretation. A perceptible shift is detected in such art practice from the arena of visual art towards that of performance, moving artist and audience relationships towards shared ownership in ceramic creativity, in which co-presence of work and percipient are essential. Aspects of relational aesthetics offer a cogent framework. Consideration is given to clay’s shared significance with other basic materials such as textile in holding meaning beyond its physicality. The thesis contributes to the discourse on methodological frameworks for practice-led research and to academic writing on contemporary ceramic art in its exploration of clay-based impermanence, encompassing maker intentionality, material alteration and destruction, site/location and significance, performativity and unrepeatability, and record. It provides a transferable research model for considering creative impermanence. Areas identified for further research include artist/audience relationships and the nature of creativity, the role of location, performativity as an aspect of contemporary practice, and curation of performance and impermanence.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:730803
Date January 2016
CreatorsGee, Sarah
PublisherUniversity of Sunderland
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/8320/

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