Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemTaskscape: Caring for Migrant Materials( 2019)This practice-led research examines concepts of value in art through the materiality of domestic space, and the personal experience of a migrant. The research locates the displaced or migrant entity – be it human or non-human – as a by-product of economic conditions related to standardisation, abstraction, invisible labour and the dematerialisation of the economy. The thesis and project are centred on this question: What diverse artistic methodologies, both in the studio and in the writing, can be pursued to counter standardisation, dematerialisation and revalue invisible labour? Through several projects initiated in the studio, my artistic exploration led me to adopt the concept of rematerialisation or material correspondence as care for materials: Rematerialisation is understood here as a method for revaluation and is tightly linked with the concept of a taskscape. Taskscape – a term borrowed from the anthropologist Tim Ingold – escapes the dichotomy between labour and leisure, and the separation of land from labour. The final outcome is a mixed media installation that counters economic abstraction and standardisation, creating parallels between the conditions of fragile economies and circulating invisible bodies. The text and the installation reflect the process of material correspondence that was developed in the studio. While the writing uses academic referencing, it is not in a pure academic style. Two chapters have been written in a fictional experimental style, which helps attune the writing to my concepts of rematerialisation as care and taskscape. It also establishes a correspondence between the studio and the writing. In chapter two, I write through the voice of a devalued coin, drawing on multiple sources related to theories of value, as well as literary examples. In chapter five, an industrialised pine wood pole comments on my studio practice. My research explores geographically dispersed artistic examples that present material processes of revaluation, rather than a mere critique of value. These examples are compared to twentieth-century artworks, which are considered critical of standardised value. Drawing on affect theories, that rematerialisation (through care and attention) may offer a “reparative” process that posits an alternative, in addition to exposing economic structures. Drawing parallels between the experience of the human body and objects (both in the studio and through the writing) my practice-led research led me to coin the term “migrant material.” This term is capable of embodying the devalued coin, the pine pole, my studio materials and my own experience as a migrant.