Final Draft Learning Agreement

JENNIFER RICHARDS
MACA ART PRAXIS 1 LEARNING AGREEMENT
FINAL DRAFT 25TH MAY 2011

Task
I have always been intrigued with history, and recent explorations and research into my own family tree have provided the catalyst for my interest in creating a discourse with my ancestors and my role within the family. I wish to create a dialogue between myself and the exploration of past generations. This will be expressed through an artist’s book and a garment.
Objective
For Art Praxis 1 I wish to create a series of encounters with my own personal archive. I am interested in the way in which documents such as photographs and written texts are kept over the generations and how these can be interpreted and re-interpreted in new ways within my own lifetime through my practice. I will collect and collate information from memoirs, letters, photographs, writings, interviews and objects as research to create different modes of documentation. I wish to express my outcomes through a variety of materials and processes in order to engage with and explore the themes in more detail. There are four generations of seamstresses in my family, and I am particularly interested in textiles, mixed media and stitch.
Contextual Framework
I am interested in the authenticity of images and how narratives can be easily constructed around what we see. The truth of the image is not necessarily what we view. This in itself can be a construct set up for the viewer by the photographer or subject to provoke a particular response.
I am also interested in exploring the use of the photograph in Fine Art practices. I am particularly interested in exploring artist such as Gerhardt Richter as he uses his own personal family photographs as a starting point for many of his paintings. I am especially interested in exploring his work depicting family members. Christian Boltanski also uses photographs in his work, but he uses found photographs and creates new narratives around the images to re-contextualise the photographs that we view.
I also wish to explore artists such as Susan Hiller who use material in an archival format, for example, From the Freud Museum (1991) is of particular relevance to my work in terms of the use of documentation and inclusion of different mediums, from photographs to writings and ephemera.
I also wish to explore the historical depictions of the seamstress or dressmaker through history. I feel that this contextual knowledge will help to inform my work in terms of the documentation process and the construction of the objects for exhibition. I also would like to examine literary references such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton to see if the depictions of the role of a seamstress are accurate and what can be gained from examining these texts in relation to the historical accounts.
Deliverables/Assessed Outcomes
Exhibition of Documentation (Garment)
Artist’s Book
Assessment Weighting
Artwork 75%
Written Reflection/Analysis 25%
Specific Assessment Criteria
Activities/Processes
Research – Primary and Secondary sources, collecting and collating information September-October 2010
Interviews – October/November 2010
First Experiments with media and materials – December/January 2010/2011
Documentation of Process – January – March 2011
Further Secondary research - Exploration of Academic and historical writings – February, March, April 2011
Review and Editing of Documentation – April – May 2011
Development of Final Outcomes – May – June 2011

Personnel, Resources and Requirements
Open Space
Plinth for Artist’s Book







Bibliography
Armstrong C & Zegher C (Ed) 2006 Women Artists at the Millennium MIT Press
Barthes R (1993) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography London: Vi ntage
Burman B (1999) The Culture of Sewing: Gender, Consumption and Home Dressmaking New York Berg Publishing
Calle S 1999 Double Game Violette Limited
Clarke G (1997) The Photograph Oxford: Oxford University Press
Gaskell E (1991) Mary Barton Oxford Oxford University Press
Lingwood J (Ed) (2004) Susan Hiller: Recall Selected Works 1969-2004 Gateshead: Baltic
Logan D (1998) Fallenness in Victorian Women’s Writing: Marry Stitch Die or Do Worse University of Missouri Press
Meskimmon M (2003) Women Making Art: History, Subjectivity and Aesthetics Routledge
Moorhouse P (2009) Gerhard Richter Portraits: Painting Appearances New Haven and London:
Yale University Press
Semin D Garb T Kuspit D (Ed) (1997) Christian Boltanski London: Phaidon
Bradley F & Brett G (1997) Susan Hiller Exhibition Catalogue Tate Liverpool London: Tate Gallery
Publishing
Gerhard Richter (2009) Portraits London: National Portrait Gallery Publications
Sean Rainbird (1992) Gerhardt Richter Exhibition Catalogue London: Tate Gallery Publications
Watson J (Ed) 2005 Interfaces – Women, Autobiography, Image, Peformance University of Michigan