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“Hollow” : reflections on practice, the artefact and the body

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Du Preez, Linda

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Art Historical Work Group of South Africa

Abstract

This article uses a rhizomatic approach to explore how the artist acquired experiential knowledge and insight through the experience and practice of making the expressive artefact “Hollow” (2011). Sullivan argues, “the experience of the artist is the core element in the creation of new knowledge …” (my emphasis). Practice-led research in the visual arts explores multiple, new and diverse ways of experiencing, understanding and living in the world. The artefact serves as both data and evidence (Niedderer 2004: 3). This article adds to the debate whether the practice itself or the reflection upon it embodies the knowledge artistic action produces by exploring the creation of knowledge in the experience and practice of making an artefact (Pakes 2004). I have structured my reveries and reflections as follows: pre-production, production and postproduction. During the pre-production phase I explore my operating system as leading to the making of the artefact. This phase includes thoughts on the intention of the artefact, the intrinsic and expressive motivation, and some serendipitous happenings. I question how to make tacit internal, emotive, bodily experiences in order to transform the ineffable and invisible into a three-dimensional expressive artefact and how to make this experience academically explicit. During the production phase, I explore reveries about and resulting from the processes and explicate the practice of making. I further explore embodied and material forms of thinking. In the post-production section, I reflect on “shocking realisations” (Bolt 2006), the role of the lived body and knowledge discovered during and after the making of “Hollow”.
In hierdie artikel ondersoek ek, met behulp van ‘n risomatiese benadering, hoe ek ervaringskennis en insig verkry het deur die ervaring en die praktyk van die maak van die ekspressiewe artefak “Hollow”. My ondersoek volg op Sullivan se (2010: 192) argument dat “die ervaring van die kunstenaar is die kernelement in die skep van nuwe kennis... “ (my klem). Praktyk-geleide navorsing in die visuele kunste ondersoek veelvuldige, nuwe en diverse maniere van die begrip en leef in die wêreld. Die artefak dien as beide data en bewysstuk (Niedderer 2004: 3). Hierdie artikel dra by tot die debat of die praktyk self of eerder die besinning daaroor die kennis wat deur artistieke aksie produseer is beliggaam, deur die ondersoek van die skepping van kennis deur die ervaring en praktyk van die maak van ‘n artefak (Pakes 2004). Ek het my mymeringe en refleksies as volg gestruktureer: pre-produksie, produksie en postproduksie. Tydens die pre-produksiefase verken ek my bedryfstelsel. Hierdie deel sluit in gedagtes oor die intensie van die artefak, die motivering vir die artefak (beide intrinsiek en ekspressief), asook ‘n paar gelukkige, toevallige gebeurtenisse. Ek ondersoek hoe om interne emosies en fisieke ervarings konkrete vorm te gee, en om sodoende dit wat onuitspreeklik en onsigbaar is in ‘n driedimensionele ekspressiewe artefak te omskep. Ek kyk hier ook na hoe om die ervaring akademies eksplisiet te maak. In die gedeelte oor die produksiefase ondersoek ek my gedagtegang gedurende die vervaardigingsprosesse, en wys hoe my interne gesprek produksie beinvloed het, en deur die prosesse beinvloed is. Ek verduidelik hierdeur die proses, en kyk weer na beliggaamde en materiele denke. In die laaste gedeelte, oor post-produksie, bedink ek sekere “skokkende insigte” (Bolt 2006), die rol van die liggaam en kennis wat ek gedurende die maak van “Hollow” opgedoen het.

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Practice-led research, Experience, Practice, The artefact, The body, Experiential knowledge

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Du Preez, L 2014, '''Hollow”: Reflections on practice, the artefact and the body', South African Journal of Art History, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 25-38. [http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_sajah.html]