Paperness : expressive material in textile art from an artist's viewpoint

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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral thesis (monograph)
Date
2009
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
213
Series
Taideteollisen korkeakoulun julkaisusarja A, 91
Abstract
Although textile artists realise the importance of physical materials through their physical and expressive qualities, no explicit account has been made of how a material is important for them, for their creative processes and artworks. This study sets out to scrutinise the expressivity of paper string as a material in textile art, exploring the relationship between paper string and artistic expression. While paper string is touchable, artistic expression can be conceived as subjective, known only by a person. Nevertheless, the physical and the subjective components might not function independently in a creative process but instead rather intertwiningly. The possible incorporation of these components becomes the problem field of the study. To tackle it, the study calls for a closer look at paper string used in actual textile art practice. Being a textile artist myself, a way to look closely into a creative process is to take the role of a practitioner, carrying out artistic productions that use paper string and taking them into research as case studies. In order to discuss in detail my own artistic productions, making and exhibiting artworks becomes one of the approaches applied to this research. As the artworks made of paper string are put on display, to know how an audience views the material can possibly help investigate the relationship between paper string and artistic expression. This aspect supports the choice of questioning visitors to the exhibitions. When the art productions or information collected from the visitors’ surveys needs some explanation, literature related to the research problem is used, especially on the following subjects: phenomenology of perception (e.g., Heidegger 1962/1990; Merleau-Ponty 1962/2005), expression theories in aesthetics (e.g., Collingwood 1938/1958; Dewey 1934/2005), exhibition design and history of modern art display (e.g., Lefebvre 1991; O’Doherty 1999), and Finnish design history (e.g., Kruskopf 1975; Wiberg 1996). For the research, I employ various means of documentation, such as diary writing, diagram drawing, photographing, sketching and questionnaires. These form the data, which can be organised, communicated and discussed. By focusing on paper string, various themes have evolved during the study, demonstrating the active quality or expressivity of paper string in textile art, or what I call “paperness”. With this quality, paper string can inform me (the artist) through its physical qualities about how to proceed with the creative processes of “Seeing Paper” and “Paper World” physically and conceptually. Conceptually, the experience with paper string can gradually give rise to artistic expression; thoughts and feelings are stimulated, leading to the conceptualisation of the design and context of the art production. Physically, the results of the art production are artworks and an exhibition, which, however, not only appear as material objects but also possess artistic content expressible to an audience. Materialness thus formulates both the physical form and subject matter of each artwork and exhibition into which artistic expression incorporates the material. This study has changed and improved my way of creating textile art. This detailed account can be useful for textile pedagogy and everyone who is interested in textile art. I believe that some readers will benefit from it and change their way of doing things after reading it, just as I have benefitted and changed during the conduct of this research.
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Keywords
paper, expression, textile art, reflective practice, phenomenology, tekstiilitaide, materiaalit, paperi, kulttuuri, Suomi
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