Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Leeds : B - Design
Postmemorial Landscapes: Places in Play/Mapping Spectral Traces
This portfolio is evidence of my substantial contribution of practice-based research to the radical concept of mapping spectral traces. It should be considered in the context of the international multi-disciplinary research network of the same name of which I am a founding convenerhttp://www.mappingspectraltraces.org/about-us.html. This work considers the role of painting, drawing and text in ‘deep mapping', ecological issues, and place-based memory work. It explores both how we might be inhabited by our histories, memories, and experiences, our own and those of others, and the ways in which that places bear traces of others, both visible and invisible. The outputs comprise two major series: Spectres on the Beach and Tributaries. The contents/outputs comprise both solo-authored and collaborative works/exhibitions with Dr Harriet Tarlo. An important characteristic of this research is that it considers the local in an international context. This work has been exhibited and discussed in the USA (Virginia and Minnesota), the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, the book affair in Venice, in the UK including Leeds, Southampton, Holmfirth, Worcester, Lincolnshire and Bristol. The work was selected to be part of contemporary British painting: a new platform for contemporary painting in the UK http://www.contemporarybritishpainting.com.
Originality lies in ways in which:
• drawing, painting and writing in landscape contribute to an affective and ethical understanding of spectral traces.
• the work disturbs and disrupts our understanding of temporal and spatial relations with place.
• Tributaries as an inter-disciplinary collaborative practice contributes to ways of mapping spectral traces, both human and non-human.
This is a development of my ten-year research considering Marianne Hirsch’s postmemory in relation to painting. This new work is informed by the work of Avery Gordon, Kate Soper and Karen Till and is the first time that painting and the visual have been considered in relation to this configuration of theorists.
