Art Form -- Artefact

ART FORM -- ARTEFACT A theoretical evaluation of the textile medium, its history and current use in Australian art and culture by Belinda Wright B.Ed., B.F.A. (Hons) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts University of Tasmania September 2003 Appendices This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgment is made in the text of the thesis. Signed: ~&..., .Ll ~Rd Date: 8 . ~I- t2-0 o3 This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 Signed:~ l.Oa Date: 8 Se_pl:- d-oa s Table of Contents Page Appendix 1 Questionnaire: Procedure and Rationale 4 Appendix 2 Artist Questionnaire 8 Appendix 3 Questionnaire Results Question 2 13 Question 3 15 Question 4 23 Questions 5 and 6 31 Question 7 44 Question 8 68 Question 9 75 Question 10 82 Questions 11 and 12 87 Question 13 98 Question 14 104 Questions 15-17 111 Appendix 4 Questionnaire Analysis 119 Appendix 1 QUESTIONNAIRE: PROCEDURE AND RATIONALE Procedure In order to discover just what interests artists currently using the medium of textile and why they use this medium in particular it was decided to distribute a questionnaire. The target population was those artists identified or identifying themselves as artists with a particular focus on textile as medium. The opportunity. arose during the course of this research to present the questionnaire as part of a symposium package. The symposium was Shift 98, a major national contemporary textile symposium held in Canberra in July 1998 which presented and promoted Australian textile practice. The symposium offered an opportunity for a cluster sample and is also classifiable as a convenience sample, i.e. a group of individuals ready and available. 1 Its aims, as outlined in the advertising, were 'to provide an opportunity for textile practitioners and others associated with textiles to present their most recent work and research in the context of a conference addressing contemporary issues, changing perspectives and future developments' and to 'bring together artists, curators, conservators, administrators, academics, educators and others 2 involved with textiles from Australia and other countries' • The participants would form a focus group. Although there would be overseas involvement I decided that distributing the questionnaire at the symposium would offer the opportunity to reach a quite large and representative section of the textile art community within Australia. The questionnaire included a space for name and address (optional) so that some attempt was made to 1 A cluster is a naturally occurring unit. Cluster sampling is a procedure of selection in which the elements for the sample are chosen from the population in groups or clusters rather than singly. The clusters used are often pre-existing natural or administrative groupings of the population eg factories, schools, political sub divisions. May result in the likelihood of increased sampling error but this is a factor which does not readily apply in my situation. 2 Shift 98 symposium brochure, Canberra School of Art. 4 regionalise those participants who elected to participate in the survey.3 The artists who received the questionnaire work in all the states and territories of Australia. Replies were received from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory and the ACT. That the symposium would have a significant art leaning was encouraged by the fact that the promoting organisation was the Canberra School of Art within the Australian National University. There would be a greater likelihood that the participants were serious about their practice, that is, they were less likely to be hobby enthusiasts. I felt that attendance at a week long conference dedicated to textile would result in participants being in a frame of mind to answer questions about their textile practice and would offer them greater opportunity to have time for considered responses. This was important since the completion and return of the questionnaires was entirely voluntary, so anything that would encourage a high response rate was to be welcomed. Envelopes already addressed for the return of the questionnaires were also included. However, this initial exercise netted only about 20 responses; I later discovered that people overlooked the questionnaire because they has so much other information to deal with. I decided to repeat the distribution. Nonetheless I think the initial approach was worthwhile in that it gave a perception of legitimacy to the project when I followed it up on a personal level. The questionnaire was reissued to Shift participants to their individual addresses this time with a personal letter to cover and enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for return. I also sent out a few extra ones to people who had not attended the conference but who I knew were asso~iated with the textile arts. The results were greatly improved with 106 out of 17 4 questionnaires returned. Some of the respondents sent additional information in the form of a letter or catalogue about their work and some sent e-mail addresses and offered to talk further if required. A number expressed interest in the research results. In addition, and apart from the one overseas respondent, 9 individuals wrote specifically to inform me that they did not fit the criteria as they were now working either as a curator, researcher, fashion retailer, educator or art coordinator. One textile conservator attended 3 Nearly all the artists completed the identification section and only one of these was a visiting artist from overseas. While her comments were quite interesting I omitted them from an analysis of the results because 5 the conference as she 'was interested to see what techniques and materials contemporary textile artists use'. Another individual (male) wrote to thank me for the survey and had started to fill it out. ... but eventually I realised that I do not fit the profile of your survey target - ie I have been a textile designer for most of my working life and a teacher as well. I have worked on industry projects which are always commercial in intent, in fashion or furnishing applications. I have never believed myself to be an 'artist' - but a designer. This was a comment echoed by some others who designated themselves as designers but who did attempt to fill out the questionnaire and whose answers I have consequently included. After answering questions 2, 3, 4, 7,10, 13-17, one person wrote: I am sending this questionnaire back, although I have been unable to answer a lot of your questions. I am a designer rather than an artist, and so find questions relating to artistic practice difficult. Design tends to be driven by the market and economics, thus I cannot fit answers to your questions. I hope one day to have time to pursue "art based" projects - but not right now!! Rationale The questionnaire was devised to allow participants to respond as 'humanly' as possible, that is, to express themselves in their own words, to indicate the strength of their feelings and to identify their own motivational influences and frames of reference. Consequently the questions were mostly framed as open-ended questions. Closed response questions would tend to only confirm or undermine previously existing hypotheses and would have less chance of picking up on innovative, personal ideas and ways of working. I have necessarily constructed the questionnaire within certain chosen parameters, those of personal interest, tradition, use of techniques and so on, but my method has been to allow a range of answers within these parameters. In this respect my research is far more qualitative than quantitative. Open questions can generate an enormous variety of responses, and this poses difficulties in the process of statistical analysis. However, the she does not practise within Australia. 6 nature of the research is to explore what is actually happening in individual artistic practice and to consider this in terms of theories about textile and its use. Although it is of interest to see if trends emerge, in some ways the unexpected may be the more exciting outcome. In the analysis I have indicated the reasons for asking the particular question and then considered the results in summary. Please note that there is no separate table of results for question 1 of the Artist Questionnaire. Instead I have summarised the results in Appendix 4: Questionnaire Analysis. Also the additional comments section in question 18 elicited very few responses. Any comments have been summarised in Appendix 4: Questionnaire Analysis. 7 Appendix 2 ARTIST QUESTIONNAIRE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA AT LAUNCESTON: MASTERS RESEARCH PROJECT THE ROLE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INVOLVING THE USE OF THE TEXTILE I FIBRE MEDIUM IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY This questionnaire has been devised to identify: • The reasons why contemporary artists use the mediums of textile and fibre. • The relationship between traditional uses of textile and contemporary developments. Your co-operation in completing this questionnaire is requested as part of a research project aimed at exploring ideas about the tradition of textile and the practice of textile I fibre art in an Australian context. The information you give will be treated in confidence. If you wish you may return the completed form anonymously. QUESTIONNAIRE NAME: (optional) ________________________ ADDRESS: (optional) _______________________ 1. How long have you practised as an artist? ________________ 2. If you have had any formal art training please tick the appropriate box(es) below. D University D T AFE D Artist - run workshops D Any other.

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