The Ceramic Blague As Cultural Critique Volume 1 Geoffrey Stuart
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The Ceramic Blague as Cultural Critique Volume 1 Geoffrey Stuart Lee Doctor of Philosophy School of Fine and Performing Arts College of Arts June 2021 Page 1 of 91 Geoff Lee THE CERAMIC BLAGUE AS CULTURAL CRITIQUE Geoffrey Stuart Lee A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Lincoln for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Fine and Performing Arts College of Arts June 2021 Page 2 of 91 Geoff Lee Acknowledgements My thanks are due to supervisors for their efforts on my behalf after an extended period of time. Martin Lang, Andrew Bracey, Jim Cheshire, and previously, Catherine George have provided both experience and unfailing encouragement. I am also grateful to Ruth Collins for her guidance through digital media in compiling the research imagery. Page 3 of 91 Geoff Lee CONTENTS CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................. 4 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 5 TRANSATLANTIC TRANSGRESSIONS ...................................................................................................... 10 CASE STUDIES .......................................................................................................................................... 20 LINES OF ENQUIRY .................................................................................................................................. 34 POSTSCRIPT ............................................................................................................................................. 79 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 86 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................ 87 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 96 Page 4 of 91 Geoff Lee INTRODUCTION This practice-based research project is an examination of the ceramic object as a critical vehicle. I will argue that: The ceramic object offers a range of effective critical alternatives to traditional forms of satire. I shall substantiate this judgement with the use of six case studies (CS) of significant ceramicists, notably Robert Arneson and Richard Slee, in order to establish contemporary practices, later referencing their work in contextualising my own practice which engages with six lines of enquiry (LoE). I shall draw upon a range of theorists from Rene Descartes on affect to Michel de Certeau on the everyday. I will conclude with the reflections and insights gained into materiality, affect and audience and suggest how these might clarify our understanding and contribute to the current literature. The impetus for this research originated outside academia in a review of my studio practice. It is the natural development of previous postgraduate enquiries, each of which concluded with outstanding questions.1 These experiences strongly suggested that clay has the capacity to produce stimulating and, possibly, alternative readings when used within a critical framework. My view is that ceramics is a dysfunctional field of practice, but one that has enormous potential as a critical tool if it adopts what I have termed the blague.2 This hypothesis stems from previous preliminary research which suggested that adopting a combination of artists’ case studies and studio practice lines of enquiry would produce significant primary research material.3 The previous studio practice being underpinned by humour suggested satire as the major research focus. I have adopted the term blague as an aggressive, critical form of mockery and ridicule which is tested across the LoEs. It should be noted that ceramic satire is not a recent phenomenon. Daumier’s terracotta portrait busts of members of the French National Assembly are unsurpassed but exist outside the scope of this contemporary enquiry.4 The scope of this enquiry does not cover ceramics’ expanded field, now largely focused on installation and performance. These areas have acquired critical priority and my research concern has been to address a gap recognised in a critical context. It is specific. In order to frame a distinctive and coherent research model, my concern has been to focus on the alienations driving artists to use the mockery and ridicule of the blague. The focus here is on figures who may not traditionally have been central to the story of artistic development. These marginal figures are used to illuminate historical and material changes within individual case studies and related lines of enquiry. This thesis sets out to answer two key research questions: 1 To what extent has the ceramic blague previously been used as a critical strategy? 1 These include Does the documentation exist with regard to this domain? Which ceramic practitioners have developed satirical practices? How do you engage with a non-informed audience and how might clay’s materiality inform these contacts? 2 The rift between traditional ceramic forms, academia and developments in museology and installation is considered within the case studies. 3 Geoffrey Lee, ‘The Drawn and Printed Ceramic Surface (unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Lincoln, 2013). 4 These works do demonstrate an artist responding to a specific zeitgeist which is a theme to be developed within the case studies and lines of enquiry. Page 5 of 91 Geoff Lee This will be established in grounding what the research has identified as the blague and recognised in the work of past ceramic practitioners. Case studies build on the initial American experience and are elaborated by the subsequent UK practitioners. 2 What is the blague’s potential for making alternative, additional and distinctive contributions to social debates, why and how might these be achieved? Building on the case study examples, the studio practice will illustrate an evolution of outcomes as the LoEs progress. The research is framed by the understanding that the status of objects is transitory and as objects of discourse they are dependent on the manner of their articulation. This assessment is supported by outcomes whose meanings are not abstract but embodied, felt, interactive and cumulative. These are the central arguments I am going to make: 1 Critical ceramic practices continue to develop and enrich the English satirical tradition. I shall illustrate this assertion with case studies of Stephen Dixon’s symbolism, Philip Eglin’s historicism, Barnaby Barford and Neil Brownsword’s kitsch and Richard Slee’s theatricality. 2 That the practice’s vernacular core offers both insights into past practices and opportunities for new and alternative critical approaches. I shall substantiate these with six strands of argumentation via the lines of enquiry referencing a range of thinkers. These are: 1 Alienation/Hegel, Marx, Jung 2 Objects & Materiality/Piaget, Kristeva 3 Agency/Descartes, Gell 4 Metaphor/Barthes, Owens 5 Skill/Benjamin, Pye, Gardner 6 Exhibition/Mauss, Levi-Strauss, Kwon I have divided the written component that accompanies the practice as research into these six LoEs for these reasons: 1 They allow a more detailed and specific enquiry 2 They demonstrate the versatility of the medium 3 They demonstrate the evolution of the practice 4 They are substantiated by theorists as indicated above 5 They contextualise the work of the case study artists This approach can be justified through the context of established methodological and theoretical contexts. The use of this format relates to University of London Professor Robin Nelson’s approach: Locating the work in a lineage and drawing upon the know-that of Page 6 of 91 Geoff Lee contemporary thinking allows the specificity of the practice to be understood in its own context. 5 The adoption of practice as research is intended to construct a more authoritative discourse with associated accountability. My methodological approach relates to MacLeod’s Type A research model where the researcher is concerned to position practice concerns and where the text carries the information relevant to an exact positioning of a culturally critical activity.6 The practice is paramount. The artefacts produced demonstrate theory and provide evidence of insights revealed. They are integral to communication and supply points of reference. My concern with discovering what can be known through the experience of making identifies with Francesco Varela’s theory of enactivism. This proposes that knowledge is grounded in the activity itself and that emergent thinking is observable through experience. This relationship is considered in detail in the Practice as Embodied Cognition essay in the writing portfolio (appendix 2) and is demonstrated as the LoEs progress. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s support for a rhizomic practice is referenced throughout the text and demonstrated in exploratory, discursive and preparatory forms located in the drawing and writing portfolios. Related drawings are located within the text and where issues are necessarily discussed briefly in the LoEs, the reader is directed to more detailed considerations in the writing portfolio. A key indicator of a thriving research community is the demand for a suitable infrastructure