Examples of current and recent graduate research: Kelly Campbell

 

Evoking Absence, Separation and Loss: Transition and Transformation in the Ceramic Combine

My art practice is the making of ceramic combines. The combine is a work of art which is made up from a number of different materials or objects. I regularly use the medium of ceramics to ‘recreate’ a variety of found objects, where the identity of the object in each case is transformed by the properties of the clay. This, I suggest, is largely a result of each combine involving more than one ceramic ‘re-creation’, with shifts in meaning taking us away from the found object to ceramic object, the former identities of the original objects are lost in the interaction between their ceramic counterparts. Arguably,”The object does not refer to being as to a signification; it would be impossible, for example, to define being as a presence since absence too discloses being, since not to be there still means to be.” (xxv, Sartre, 1943).

The PhD investigation examines the ways in which ceramics ’re-creation' of objects can be manipulated and combined to express emotions of absence, separation and loss. The aim of this set of trials entitled 'Frozen Iron Work' aims to analyze the relationship between the clay objects (Irons) and the process of freezing. By exploring how the clay’s physical properties react and transform within the combine artwork, further analysis aims to bring together and develop how these findings evoke the emotions of absence, separation and loss. These findings will be the basis for my next set of practical investigations.

It can be argued that, life is constructed through a series of appearances; these, infinite within their nature, build and establish our response to it as a whole. This framework of being is mirrored through the art object, presenting us with a series of appearances within the transformation and transitional process. The artist’s role within this investigative process is to distinguish certain appearances within its whole being which evoke specific emotions.

The totality, “objects essence”, makes an organized whole. The essence is not in the object; it is the meaning of the object, the principle of the series of appearances which disclose it. (xxv, Sartre, 1943).

Research Degrees