GUIDELINES

DEVELOPMENT OF A PROJECT PLAN (EXAMPLE) - 3 STAGES

1. MFA APPLICATION PROPOSAL 1/3

This proposal (or project plan) is included in the MFA application.

For the first year of the MFA program I would like to conduct a comparative study of Victorian era embroidery samplers and their contemporary counterpart, women’s magazines. Taking as a starting point the striking similarity in tone, function and aesthetic construction, I will explore the use of these two forms as tools for the indoctrination of femininity. I will create a series of “samplers” based on the titles of articles taken from women’s magazines. The samplers will then form the basis of a group of installations; drawing on and deconstructing the two forms shared structure, which consists of short, directive texts surrounding a central image of an ideal of femininity. Through the work I hope to explore the way meaning emerges from repetitive action (embroidery) and how that meaning evolves or changes in the moment of arrangement (installation). The “samplers” exist as individual objects which, when arranged on a wall, implicate each other in a larger narrative, which is laden with the complex history of embroidery as agent of both control and expression. I plan to inform my art practice through research which draws on the historical evolution of embroidery as a female voice, specifically from Victorian times to the present. I will explore the ways in which embroidery has been re-imagined from samplers through to the use of the medium in the Dada and Russian Constructivism movements and into contemporary art practice. Research into the history of embroidery as a tool for feminine discourse through works such as The Subversive Stitch (Rozsika Parker) and theoretical interpretations of the art/craft divide will form part of the project. The work of Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin and Ghada Amer are the primary references for the project within contemporary art practice as well as the exploration of repetitive action in performance art and dance.

2. 2.MFA PROPOSAL DRAFT EXAMPLE 2/3
   

This proposal is presented at the residency for input and refinement.

Title: Dispositional Hypnoid States

Practical element:

Exploration of scrambling of myths and memory with relation to forms which function

as teachers and tools of indoctrination of femininity.

Take embroidery samplers and unpick them, photograph them and then feed the

image into a computer program which creates embroidery patterns, then embroider

these images (most likely in cross stitch). Many of these embroidery pattern

generator programs use codes to denote stitch style and color, so I will also create

some pencil drawings based on the coded patterns. These drawings will be based on

magazine articles which work under the same premise as the embroidery samplers in

relation to feminine myths. These will accompany the embroidery pieces.

1. The unpicking/destruction of a sampler – relates to the deconstruction of

feminine myths. Explorations of erasure and forgetting.

2. Photographing the result and feeding it into a pattern generating computer

program examines the change in traditions of passing down technical

knowledge of stitches etc. through the exchange between

mother/daughter/sister/friend by replacing this sense of a community of

women with modern technology

3. Reproducing the result in embroidery speaks about the scrambling of myths

and memory and erasure through layering and explores less representational,

more abstract embroidery forms

4. Reproducing the result in pencil drawings of the codes used in these

programs to denote stitch and color, speaks to the codification of feminine

practices and mythologies.

I would destroy the samplers in various ways as according to different ideas of

erasure and memory loss. Some violent, some delicate. I will document the choices I

make in the ʻdestructionʼ of each piece in order to evaluate the way we use selection

to shape memory and story in relation to our own history and that of the collective

past.

Written Element:

Freud claimed that embroidery caused ʻdispositional hypnoid statesʼ, which were

often a pre-cursor to hysterical attacks. I would like to explore how this is related to

the function of embroidery as a teacher and indoctrinating force into femininity,

specifically through the production of embroidery samplers in the 19th century. I will

also explore how contemporary womenʼs magazines function on many of the same

principles as embroidery samplers, using short, directive texts surrounding a central

image of an ideal of femininity and how the consumption of these magazines

produces equivalent dispositional hypnoid states. How has this notion of embroidery

as a hypnotic act been overturned in contemporary art practice in order to explore

violence (personal, emotional political), through the work of artists such as Louise

Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Ghada Amer, Ana de la Cueva etc.

Project results:

The project will result in a series of installations of the embroidery and drawing

works, which will be accompanied by a journal of the process including written and

photographic elements which depict the process of destruction/scrambling.

Research method:

Explore the physical action of embroidery and how it relates to the state of mind of

the maker. How do the physical restrictions imposed on the embroiderer impact on

the meaning of the final piece and the teaching intended by the action and the result?

Interview embroiderers and embroidery teachers about methods and practices,

especially in terms of teaching.

Examine the ways in which women consume magazines, in what environments,

times of day, poses etc. and how these affect the emotional response to the content.

Readings related to craft theory, the history of embroidery, memory and the

examination of contemporary art works which employ embroidery.

Initial bibliography:

Parker, Rozsika. The Subversive Stitch; Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine

London: Womenʼs Press, 1984

Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Craft.

Oxford and New York: Berg, 2007

Gibbons, Joan. Contemporary Art and Memory; Images of recollection and

rembrance

New York, IB Taurus, 2007

Museum of Art and Design. Pricked: Extreme Embroidery; process + materials 2

(Catalogue) 2007

Frédérique Joseph-Lowery. Through the eye of a needle

Artnet magazine, 2010

Natalya Lusty. Surrealism, Feminism, Psychoanalysis

England, Ashgate Publishing, 2007

Research question:

How has the consumption of womenʼs magazines replaced the production of

embroidery samplers as instigator of Freudʼs ʻdispositional hypnoid statesʼ and

teacher and indoctrinator of feminine codes? How is the teaching of femininity tied to

passive/hypnoid states? What is the function of repetition and arrangement in both

cases and what effect do they have on the production/erasure of memory? What is

the relationship of embroidery to violence in contemporary art practice and how has it

subverted the traditional role of embroidery as teacher and keeper of memory?

Intended Audience:

Everyone. Particularly those working with traditional ʻcraftʼ forms.

Short Statement of your current practice:

I explore the relationship between textiles and story, memory, experience and

identity. I am currently most interested in the ways embroidery can be re-imagined,

abstracted and deconstructed.

Formulate entire project in 2-3 meaningful sentences:

Dispositional Hypnoid States will be a comparative study of Victorian era embroidery

samplers and their contemporary counterpart; womenʼs magazines. Taking as a

starting point the striking similarity in tone, function and aesthetic construction, I will

explore these two forms as tools for the indoctrination of femininity and examine the

ways they can be subverted/scrambled and how this affects the production/erasure

of memory.

3. 3.MFA FINAL PROPOSAL 3/3
   

This proposal is approved at the summer residency. If further changes are desired they can be made and re-submitted up until the end of the fall semester. Note any changes after the summer proposal must be approved by advisors.

Title: The Cut

Practical element:

Over the course of the year I plan to explore different methods of cutting, using

various instruments such as the scalpel (surgical), scissors (dress making), butcherʼs

knife (culinary) and possibly the computer (editing). Through the exploration of these

different cutting techniques I hope to reflect on the cut as both physical reality and as

a representation of rupture (physical, psychological, social, historical).

The study of cutting and the attendant works will form the basis of a body of work,

most likely in the medium of textile work and photography.

Written element:

The written element will take as starting point a selection of artists who use the cut in

their work as a means to explore various themes associated with rupture from

psychological, emotional, historical, social and architectural points of view. Through

the selection of works in a range of different media, I hope to explore the huge

potentialities of the cut as artistic metaphor.

Possible artists:

Gordon Matta-Clark – architectural/social rupture,

Louis Bourgeois - emotional rupture

Doris Salcedo – historical/memory rupture

Martin Arnold - psychological rupture and repetition

My research of cutting techniques will also form part of the written element of the

project.

Project Results:

The project will result in photographic and written documentation of the research

component. At this point I am unsure how the exploration of cutting will manifest itself

but I plan to produce a body of work which will potentially form the basis of an

installation or exhibition.

Research method:

I plan to learn the basics of cutting from a variety of sources: a surgeon, a tailor, a

cook and possibly an editor. Ideally, I will engage with each technique separately in

order to fully immerse myself in the method. I plan to journal about the developments

and document the process in photographs.

Readings on the selected artists and their works related to the cut as well as a wide

range of readings on themes related to repetition, rupture and violence will also

inform the work.

Initial Bibliography:

Elisabeth Sussman, Gordon Matta Clark: You are the measure, (New York, Whitney

Museum of American Art, 2007)

Pamela M. Lee, Object to be Destroyed: the work of Gordon Matta Clark,

(Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT press, 2001)

Ann Coxon, Louise Bourgeois, (London, Tate Publishing, 2010)

Joan Gibbons, Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and

Remembrance, (New York, I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2007)

Carlos Basualdo, Nancy Princenthal, Doris Salcedo & Andreas Huyssen, Doris

Salcedo, (Phaidon, 2000)

Pilar Parcerisas, Viennese Actionism: Gunther Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch,

Rudolf Schwarzkogler, (New York, Actar, 2008)

Paul Virillio, Art and Fear, (London, Continuum International Publishing Group,

2006)

Kate Armstrong, Crisis and Repetition: Essays on Art and Culture, (Michigan State

University Press, 2002)

Ad Reinhardt, Art as Art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt (Documents of

Twentieth Century Art), (University of California Press, 1991)

Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition (London, Continuim International

Publishing Group, 2004)

Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, (The International psycho-analytical

press, 1922)

John Cage, Silence, (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961)

Paul Virilio, Sylvére Lotringer, The Accident of Art, ( Semiotext(e); Cambridge,

Mass: Distributed by the MIT Press, 2005)

Soren Kierkegaard, An Essay in Experimental Psychology (Harper & Row, 1964)

Martin, Heidegger, Being and Time (Wiley-Blackwell, 1962)

Research Question:

How is the cut used as a way to explore ideas of rupture in the work of the selected

artists? What themes are addressed through the use of the cut in contemporary art?

What is the relationship of the cut to the body in the works of the selected artists?

Intended Audience:

The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover.

Short Statement of your current practice:

I explore the relationship between textiles and story, memory, experience and

identity.

Formulate entire project in 2-3 meaningful sentences:

My work up until now has revolved around the stitching together of things: stories,

fabric, threads and memories. This project will explore the other side of stitching, the

rupture that precedes the stitch, the possibilities inherent in ʻthe cutʼ as artistic tool

and metaphor.