Drawing and etching place: What are the experiential and material characteristics of British contemporary practice and how do they evidence reciprocity between drawing and etching?

Picken, Wendy

Abstract

The thesis is framed through an interpretation of creativity realised through the fine art practices of drawing and etching. The research was initiated on the unexamined presupposition that drawing is a natural starting point for the medium of etching. In examining the role that drawing plays in investigating and challenging the representation of place, the research identifies reciprocal characteristics in etching practice. The case studies, Norman Ackroyd, Ros Ford, Bronwen Sleigh, Ian Chamberlain and Jason Hicklin provide accounts of their own experiences and enlightening descriptions of the tacitly understood and explicitly known details of their practice. Research was qualified through studio practice, examining my own work and the practice of David Sully. The cyclical generation of case study research and developing theories, explored through an appropriation of the terminology of etching practice, is instrumental in recognising reciprocal actions of creative research as working proof methodology. Creative practice provides evidence in this thesis of tacit understanding, material consciousness and domain shifts; proving that learning by doing and embracing the transference of values from one area of an artist’s practice to another, reciprocally enriches both aspects. The elements of tension and conflict, resistance and challenge, are also shown to have a vital role in reciprocating creative productivity in drawing and etching. The research identifies the multiplicity of reciprocated characteristics employed in practice and places those qualities firmly in an experiential context; thereby advancing the current understanding of the aesthetic and practical experience of drawing and etching. The research concludes by presenting a provisional taxonomy of the characteristics of reciprocity identified as a tacitly synthesised experiential and material exchange.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 16, 2019
• Keywords: Key words: drawing, etching, place, practice-led, case study, artists, practitioners, tension, material characteristics, experiential qualities, working proof methodology, tacit synthesis
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1491181
• Award Date: Aug 21, 2018