Currently registered as a PhD researcher in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln.
Working thesis title:
Experiments Toward a Phenomenology of Place:
A practice-based enquiry into the epistemology of spaces of indeterminacy
Research Interests
My artistic motivation is very much about location. My current research, both studio and written, is on the topic of space and place. The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan says, “…if we think of space as that which allows movement then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place.” I believe the key to my practice lies in this moment of transition from space to knowable place. It is this pause that I am conscious of in my work.
I seek to understand how space might be made more material or knowable through artistic examination. Indeed, I also investigate this notion of “knowing” a space especially within theories of personal geography and identity. I seek to examine the moment, and perhaps guide the process, of transition from indeterminate space to knowable place.
Decades ago, artists such as Robert Smithson and Tony Smith wrote about their experience within landscape which inspired them to create new artworks, but the practice that began these explorations has been largely abandoned. My work investigates how new understandings of the contemporary landscape have resounding affects on the creation of artworks. I examine ways in which phenomenology might be applied as a philosophical enquiry into indeterminate spaces within the landscape, especially those viewed from disparate angles or while in transit to places that are new to me.
