Research Summary

 

This is the image of the House my research unearthed. I had never seen the House from the front before, only the side view. I had searched on many occasions. The project enabled me to delve deeper and spend time researching to find a new perspective on the House. Sadly, I have not found any interior images yet. 

The linocut I created after finding the above photograph. I later added paint in a
holloway effect or dream tunnel, to add impact to the image.

The research I carried out during my second year has been an important part of my work and practice. The research stage is my most productive time. I love to spend time exploring ideas, finding information and connections between narratives. During this year I realised my research and documentation can be my medium. I no longer felt guilty for researching instead of making!
To stop the guilt I researched artists like Susan Hiller, Christian Boltanski and Mary Kelly. Their work and process embraces the research stage, enabling them to weave a narrative around the documentation and found objects.

This idea ties in with so many of inspirations including found items and forensic exploration, vintage finds and lost narratives. During this year I have also discovered 'critical fabulations'. Firstly, through Autograph Gallery (I saw Renee Mussai speak and she talked about researching the undocumented black people from Victorian photographs) and then through the book 'Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments' by Saidiya Hartman. There is a need for history to be created in some cases, where lives were not recorded, the lives that were deemed not important enough. Through evidence, fact and fiction a narrative is created for those lost souls. I find this an exciting new area I want to continue to investigate and a much needed rewriting of history.

The research of Patrick Keiller 'Robinson Institute' Tate exhibition (2012) was a great starting point for me. This enabled me to use any medium I wanted to try to explore the subject of the House. Although I bought the book, which was great, I was unable to view the archive at Tate Library. I booked 3 times and each time it was cancelled due to Covid restrictions. Hopefully I can get in there in the near future.

During L5 I managed to tie some of my CCS reading and writing in with my House project. This helped enormously. Not only with researching which supported my practice, exposing me to new artists and writers, new ways of thinking but also writing about a subject I am interested in too. Reading M R James, Robert MacFarlane and Mark Fisher enabled me to bring in the genius loci of the area, eeriness and longing into my practice. I also explored Derek Jarman's work, especially his super8 film 'Journey to Avebury' (1973) and looked into why so many artists are inspired by Suffolk and the Sutton Hoo Anglo Saxon burial site. 

I feel during my second year I had a more cohesive research approach. I decided to work on one project for the whole year rather than 3 shorter projects like in first year. This gave me the time and ability to delve deeper, research more into my subject. I feel this was reflected in my work and although there are some artwork I am continuing, which are part of the House project, I don't feel like I have unfinished business with the subject.