Crafting the Perceptual Event

This thesis project is a material inquiry into the perceptual consequences of colour, pattern and shape, as well as a personal investigation of the terms of Western abstraction. In this paper, I will describe and contextualize three bodies of studio work I have developed during my time as a graduate student. I will articulate how these projects reanimate certain Modernist tropes, especially the concepts of non-objective form and colour-as-subject. I will also link my works to an additional set of concerns, which include the spatio-temporal implications of modular structure and three-dimensional form, and the significance of labour-intensive material craft in the digital age. Stripe Set is a series of painted canvases with the same composition but different colour palettes. As a modular work, this project can be reconfigured in response to architectural situations and opportunities of exhibition context. It queries notions of originality and multiplicity while delivering an experience of chromatic intensity that calls a viewer’s attention to their embodied situation. The Polychrome Lozenges are a series of serigraphs on cotton paper that explore the boundary between object and image while paying homage to the history of striped painting within the 20th century canon. The Intermedial Experiments are a collection of works made from wood and fibreboard that blend combinations of drawing, painting and sculpture to generate instances of perceptual surprise. In addition to coming off the wall into literal space, these pieces mark a significant shift as they depart from arbitrary colour palettes to consider how specifically sourced colours can link abstract artworks to our everyday perceptual experiences.