Discursivity I and II
- Written byPost-Grad Community
- Published date 08 October 2021
A new exhibition platform for CCW PhD students
Discursivity serves not only as a much-needed showcase for the research projects of practice-based PhD students at CCW but also incorporates a day of discussion about their works with the artists alongside a group of Fine Art MA students.
Practice as research at PhD level demands that the student develops a body of work which leads their investigation and which aims to address a particular question. It therefore necessitates situating their artwork (their practice) within a particular body of knowledge and making a specific and new contribution to that field.
The day of discussion, addressing the artworks presented in this exhibition, intends to offer the opportunity for the researcher to engage in a community of like-minded students in discussion about what it is to produce artworks which are capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas.
PhD students at CCW have no studio space within the colleges which traditionally has been the place where experimentation and innovation is shared and generated. Much of the PhD students’ findings are therefore shared at conferences and in journals. Nevertheless, their research as artists is determined by their ongoing practice which leads this enquiry and necessitates close critical scrutiny. Opportunities to present the practice itself, as we are offering here in this exhibition space within the institution (the art school), as professional propositions must be central to the testing of their practice as research investigations.
Leading this project Mo Throp with Stephen Wilson are concerned, in this day of discussion, to embed the research culture into the curriculum of the art school and sites of learning through the student body; in this case, extending the MA students’ understanding of practice as research by engaging with the work presented here as reflecting methodologically on their developing practice. The discussion is therefore framed around the aim to consider alternatives for creative production as an ethical consideration of their practice, not merely concerned with success in the art market. We will be looking at what has been produced, examining the relationships between political, ethical and aesthetic gestures under which new knowledge is possible to research and discover.
Discursivity II exhibition
The Triangle Space Gallery at Chelsea College of Arts, 16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU
Open to the public on Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 October 2021 (10am to 4pm)
Artists exhibting include:
Denise Ackerl | Adrienne Bennie | Owain Caruana-Davies | Sara Grisewood | Sally Hilal | Karen Piddington | Remi Rana Allen | Srinivas Surti | Ana Teles | Joshua Y'Barbo | Mil Vukovic-Smart
Leading the project Dr Mo Throp (Associate Researcher, Chelsea College of Arts) and Dr Stephen Wilson (Post-Graduate Theory Co-ordinator at CCW) would like to thank the UAL Teaching & Learning Event Fund for supporting this event.
With special thanks to The Post-Grad Community Team from 2020 to 2021 who includes Rachael Lakhan, Fred Kavanagh, Catriona Mahmoud, Abigail Fletcher and Laetitia Forst. Who coordinated both exhibitions, communications and documentation.
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