Abstract Connections

This thesis links disparate sources to build a new way of looking at abstract painting. It draws on anthropology, cognitive science, philosophy, and art history to open up a different discourse about abstraction. Alfred Gell’s anthropological theory of art is used as a model for investigating the various social exchanges that take place in the entire spectrum of interactions that abstract painting involves. These social transactions include both traditional linguistic ones, as well as non-linguistic exchanges. Cognitive science is looked at to investigate the experience of sensation at a more granular level than that of language. Philosophy, particularly of Gilles Deleuze, is discussed in order to tie sensation with the opening of a fissure to connect to new ways of thinking and debating. Art History is investigated to situate my own practice with other painters, both historical and contemporary. This openness of sources in my writing is reflective of the openness of the types of resources that I use in my painting practice, where I mix ornamentation, topology, and gesture. In both the written thesis and my art practice the goal is to regard abstraction as a means to facilitate alternative knowledge production. In this sense, abstraction is investigated as a search for discursiveness through a material practice.