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Deadline: 20th October 4pm. Please submit to this ShareDrive folder: 

https://artslondon.sharepoint.com/teams/MAFineArtPaintingCamberwell2324/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?CT=1696237884006&FolderCTID=0x01200028AFEF6F39558449B1A3A945328523C1&id=%2Fteams%2FMAFineArtPaintingCamberwell2324%2FShared%20Documents%2FGenera

 

At the outset of the MA course, you are asked to write a practice-based research proposal in which you outline a challenging, self-directed and ethical proposal of your research for the coming year. This will form the starting point for your research enquiry, in which you state your aims and objectives, outline your research and working methods and map your contexts/influences. This proposal will evolve as you move through the course and is evidenced through your practical artwork and online platform.

 

Your practice-based research proposal allows us to support the ways that you formulate and express concepts, envisage your agency, your ability to balance your time and operate as a creative professional. Changes to the nature or detail of your proposal will occur naturally, through discussion, or following assessments.

 

Recommendations: To write your proposal, ask yourself the following questions:

• What ideas/interests are most relevant to you?

• Is your project feasible in the time that you are on the MA? How grounded is this? For example, no artist can engage with huge issues such as “truth” or “society” or “culture”. Be selective. Close some doors.

• How do you plan to broaden your research? (e.g. through primary research - visits to libraries, galleries, museum collections)

• What technical facilities will you need?

 

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Your name and course: 

Esther Mahboubian Robertson 

 

Summarise your research proposition (50-100 words) – this will form the core of your artist’s statement:

 

I would like to continue exploring beauty in the sombre through trees and tree portraiture. I am interested in fluidity and perceived permanency; trees embody both states - unusual forms which make up a whole which is alive and in growth and a sense of something which is grounded and will outlive us. Trees are both mundane and unusual; themes which can be explored in Surrealism (Leonora Carrington). I am interested in how different trees can visually provoke feelings and tap into the viewers psyche - feelings of nostalgia, time, mortality, romance, intuition, freedom and restriction to name a few. I am interested in the artist’s psyche and its evocation. Francis Bacon is an example of an artist depicting the disturbed yet relatably human psyche with raw emotion. I would like to research other artists who are interested in capturing the organic such as Tacita Dean. I have previously looked at existentialism in Satre’s Nausea and sensual death in nature through Sylvia Plath’s poems - these are themes I could explore further. I could look further into where my interests in contemporary culture - rock, androgyny, the gothic meet trees. I would like to continue to explore materiality and unconventional painting through my practice and research. 

 

State the aims & objectives of your project - what do you want to achieve? What steps do you need to take to achieve your aims?

 

I would like to research other artists who capture the organic and provoke emotion in response to it - this will give me a broader visual knowledge which could inspire my own technical practice. 

 

I could do further research on the themes around my practice which interest me such as beauty, the sombre, Surrealism, Mortality, existentialism, the psyche, fluidity/permanency, the organic, the romantic, the gothic, rock/androgyny. This would broaden my knowledge and thinking behind my practice. 

 

Through visual and more conceptual research I will better understand why I am so drawn to trees and what it is that I want to capture in my artworks. 

 

I can research through exhibitions, collections, books from the library and online research. I could attend appropriate artist talks. Spending time in nature is important experiential research - the trees I capture often hold a personal sense of nostalgia.

 

I would like to have a broader material understanding by experimenting with different mediums - and backgrounds e.g. could explore materials other than canvas to paint on : Textile, Fabric, Card, Wax. I could experiment with transparent backgrounds.

 

I want to continue to explore unconventional painting. I could experiment with different ways of painting and research other unconventional painters.

 

I want to continue to have a physically engaging practice - could continue to work on large scale or making gestural works with fluid or experimental materials.

 

I could continue to engage with real nature in my practice by engaging with nature and working from life. I could see how nature reacts to different mediums.

 

Which writers/thinkers/influences are key to your enquiry (a list of at least 10 references):

 

• Leonora Carrington - Leonora Carrington Surrealism, Alchemy and Art

• Francis Bacon

• Lynda Benglis

• Tacita Dean 

• Jackson Pollock

• Sylvia Plath - poetry (previously Ariel)

• James Kirwan - Sublimity 

• Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea 

• Tate 

• MoMA

• The Climate Crisis as wider context (my work is not protest art)

• Rock music/ androgyny/ more popular culture - the gothic 

• Simon Callery - physical engagement with practice 

• Mark Fairnington - liked how he mentioned the point where a realist painting becomes surreal 

• Gavin Edmonds

• Helen Frankenthaler 

• Freud and the unconscious

• Mia Graham

 

Identify what your project might need in terms of resources, materials and support. What practice-based methodologies and methods will be most suitable for the development of your project?  (bullet point list):

 

• Photo - sketch- paint working sequence 

• support advising materials which sit on the surface and look like candle wax 

• Technical advice on materials I can paint on other than canvas 

• could get advice from Michael Corkrey on using wax on canvas 

• Central Loan Store

• Place where open flames or a way of heating materials can happen eg wax

• Large area for floor work possibly outside or in Wilson Road playground 

• material experimentation - mediums and backgrounds eg canvas alternatives 

• spider diagram with interests - finding where popular culture and trees overlap

• Working from life or seeing how Nature reacts with different materials 

• Could make rubbings or film onto acetate 

• Could do etchings 

• Stained glass?

• I might need to get back in touch with the disability adviser about extensions on submissions which I had during the BA

 

Provide a bibliography/webography of sources relevant to your research - this is something you will continually add to): 

 

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY BELOW THIS 

 

www.moma.org

 

www.tate.org.uk

 

Crawford, L. (2021) Sylvia Plath: Will the poet always be defined by her death?. Available at: https://www.citethemrightonline.com/sourcetype?docid=b-9781350927964&tocid=b-9781350927964-29 (Accessed: 28.12.2022).

 

 

D’Alessandro, S,  Gale, M (2021) Surrealism Beyond Borders. US: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

 

 

Encyclopaedia Britannica (no date) Freudian theory of human behaviour. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-behavior#ref390891 (Accessed: 1.11. 2022).

 

 

Fisher, M. (2016) The Weird and The Eerie. UK: Repeater Books.

 

 

Kirwan, J. (2005) Sublimity. Great Britain: Routledge. 

 

 

L.Aberth, S. (2010/2020) Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art. UK: Lund Humphries. 

 

 

Matteo, A. (2020) Feeling Sad? Hug a Tree!. Available at: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/feeling-sad-hug-a-tree-/5511752.html (Accessed: 18.01.2023).  

 

 

Moorhead, J. (2017) The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. Great Britain: Virago Press.

 

 

Plath, S. (1965/2001) Ariel. London: Faber and Faber Limited.

 

 

Sartre J-P. (1963/2000) Nausea. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 

 

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (no date) The Fall of Adam and Eve. Available at: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-6-the-fall-of-adam-and-eve?lang=eng (Accessed: 4.01.2023).

 

 

Tiger’s Eye (1948) Barnett Newman, “The First Man Was an Artist” 1947*. Available at: https://artkatvisualculture.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/newman-the-sublime-is-now.pdf (Accessed: 21.11.2022)

 

 

Feedback on my work and what to research from Andrew Grassie:

 

Rodney Graham 

inverted tree portraits 

Tacita Dean - prolonged gaze 

unconscious 

Caspar David Friedrich 

contemporary culture - gothic 

Tetsu iron man - Japan 

intensity , special, not easy to digest straight away, draws in 

swiss black paper cut out - folk arty, supernatural 

Cara Walker 

backdrops of the work in a room - forest 

stark , spooky - Bacon

spooky science fiction - lynda benglis 

High art - popular culture 

ven diagram of interests

Spectacular 

Could have an element of Halloween/ disease/ kitsch 

 

 

 

Remi Allen: 

 

Barry Bhartikher

 

My works like mono prints 

Figurative 

Rubbings from the tree - different fabrics - what can you make through this - building textures up 

 

Collecting stuff and pressing it 

 

Looks like Harry Potter - ghostly figures - vague , fear 

 

Research on Bacons paintings 

X-rayed paintings to see how they’d changed to get to end result 

 

Unseen and seen 

 

End physical object 

 

X-rays - scanning - film onto acetate 

 

Prints 

 

Gothic architecture 

 

Emma Lee Reece The Vagina - gargoyles in churches and gothic buildings - art history and feminist art 

 

The Welcome Collection 

 

 

 

Genetic Automata 

 

Immerse myself In private collections 

 

 

Genetic Automata 

 

Immerse myself in private collections

 

Reading poetry and surrealism 

 

female artists in movement 

 

Dada and object based artworks 

 

Marcel Duchamp’s sister

 

Unconventional forms of painting 

 

Fluidity in research 

 

 

Geraint Evans:

 

 

Michael Landy - weeds pictures 

 

Time 

 

Nurturing 

 

France Krajcheburg

 

 

Tutorial with Geraint 

 

Charoal - history - rubbed out bits 

 

immersive tree 

 

Traces - age 

 

Experiment 

 

Tentative start 

 

Canvas /different materials 

 

Different ways of applying the paint 

 

Sewing 

 

Idea of time and layers 

 

Bigger paper 

 

Charcoal on linen - unstretched - monochromatic 

 

subdued palette 

 

Vibrancy 

 

Disorientating, heightened 

 

Colour in film 

 

Wizard of Oz - different state of mind 

 

More experiments 

 

Colour /texture  

 

Charcoal - made of trees 

 

canvas - stain it - coloured ground with charcoal on 

 

dripped paint quality 

 

Hannah May Bank - manipulated surface 

 

Mixed media 

 

Time 

 

Series 

 

Regulating - drawing a day 

 

Small things attached and sewed 

 

Texture 

 

Canvas, linen 

 

scale layering 

 

unnatural 

 

Pollock - paint stained into the canvas 

 

Could combine stencilled and dripped - Elizabeth Magill - printed and painted 

 

screen printed images 

 

Expansive with materials 

 

Landline - Camden Art Centre 

 

Anya Gallaccio

 

Experiencing tree through fragments 

 

can bring smaller things together

 

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Leo Brook:

 

Yves Klein 

 

William Kentridge charcoal animation 

 

Gothic architecture - trees going into cathedrals 

 

Horror 

 

Gothic classical 

 

chaos order 

 

sun and moon 

 

romantic tradition 

 

Samuel Palmer 

 

Kew Gardens - Petrichor 

 

electric green - feelings and colour 

 

coloured grounds and trees 

 

moving image 

 

 

Symbolism 

 

Nature 

 

Poetry 

 

growth and decay 

 

nature as symbol of internal states of being 

 

Anish Kapor 

 

Etching 

 

Batique 

 

Bunsen burner 

 

 

​

Extended Bibliography 

 

 

 

www.moma.org

 

www.tate.org.uk

 

Crawford, L. (2021) Sylvia Plath: Will the poet always be defined by her death?. Available at: https://www.citethemrightonline.com/sourcetype?docid=b-9781350927964&tocid=b-9781350927964-29 (Accessed: 28.12.2022).

 

 

D’Alessandro, S,  Gale, M (2021) Surrealism Beyond Borders. US: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

 

 

Encyclopaedia Britannica (no date) Freudian theory of human behaviour. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-behavior#ref390891 (Accessed: 1.11. 2022).

 

 

Fisher, M. (2016) The Weird and The Eerie. UK: Repeater Books.

 

 

Kirwan, J. (2005) Sublimity. Great Britain: Routledge. 

 

 

L.Aberth, S. (2010/2020) Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art. UK: Lund Humphries. 

 

 

Matteo, A. (2020) Feeling Sad? Hug a Tree!. Available at: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/feeling-sad-hug-a-tree-/5511752.html (Accessed: 18.01.2023).  

 

 

Moorhead, J. (2017) The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. Great Britain: Virago Press.

 

 

Plath, S. (1965/2001) Ariel. London: Faber and Faber Limited.

 

 

Sartre J-P. (1963/2000) Nausea. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 

 

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (no date) The Fall of Adam and Eve. Available at: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-6-the-fall-of-adam-and-eve?lang=eng (Accessed: 4.01.2023).

 

 

Tiger’s Eye (1948) Barnett Newman, “The First Man Was an Artist” 1947*. Available at: https://artkatvisualculture.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/newman-the-sublime-is-now.pdf

 

 

Callery, S. (2023) 'Painters' Forum : A talk by Simon Callery' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 11 October.

 

Fairnington, M. (2023) 'Postgraduate Lecture Programme: Mark Fairnington' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 4 October. 

 

Edmonds, G. (2023) 'Reading Group: Visions of The Self with Gavin Edmonds' [Reading Group]. Camberwell College of Arts. 2 November.

 

Findland, J. (2022) 'Helen Frankenthaler Radical Beauty: No Rules Symposium' [Lecture]. Camberwell College of Arts. 26 March.

 

Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty (2021) [Exhibition]. Dulwich Picture Gallery. 15 September 2021-18 April, 2022.

 

Dean, T. (2021) Purgatory (Mount I) [Coloured pencil on Fuji Velvet paper mounted on paper]. Frith Street Gallery, Golden Square 1, London (Viewed: 1 October 2021). 

 

L.Aberth, S. (2010/2020) Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art. Uk : Lund Humphries.

 

Moorhead, J. (2017) The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington. Great Britain: Virago Press.

 

Francis Bacon. (1972) Painting from Triptych [Painting]. RA, London (Viewed:11 February 2022).

 

Burckhardt, R. (1950) Jackson Pollock at work, 1950. Available at: https://www.sarahransomeart.com/blog/what-inspired-jackson-pollocks-art (Accessed: 7 November 2023).

 

Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. (2004) Snow Pines, 2004. Available at: https://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/artworks/snow-pines/details/all(Accessed: 7 November 2023).

 

PACE Gallery. (2020) Lynda Benglis Hills and Clouds. Available at: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/lynda-benglis-2/ (Accessed: 2 October 2023).

 

Placebo. (2022) Placebo Happy Birthday In The Sky. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6RZUqkomCmb8zCRqc9eznB/discography/all (Accessed: 2 October 2023).

 

INCUBATOR -23 : MIA GRAHAM BURIAL (2023) [Exhibition]. Incubator Gallery. 18 - 29 October 2023. 

 

Paula Rego (1994) Dog Woman [Pastel on canvas]. Victoria Miro (Viewed: 24 October 2023). Available at: https://www.victoria-miro.com/artworks/29910/ (Accessed:24 October 2023).

 

Kinsman, J. (2023) The Assuming Device [balsa wood, glue, wire and foam ear plugs]. Slade, London (Viewed: 14 December 2023).

 

Slade Interim Showcase (2023) [Exhibition]. Slade, London.12 -14 December, 2023. 

 

Fairnington, M. (2023) Root Finger [oil on canvas]. Mark Fairnington (Viewed: 22 January 2024). Available at: https://markfairnington.com/roots/ (Accessed: 22 January 2024).

 

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Your proposal will be discussed in tutorials, crits and seminars throughout the course. Consultation with academic staff team, other visiting staff and technical specialists will support your independent development of this project. You will need to manage yourself and the project over a sustained period of time while balancing various aspects of your proposal.

 

Further Help:

 

Academic Support Online (UAL):

https://academicsupportonline.arts.ac.uk/user/login?destination=resources

 

Adsit, J. & Byrd, R. M. (2019) Writing Intersectional Identities: Keywords for Creative Writers. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

 

Bell, Judith. (2018). Doing Your Research Project. Amacom.

 

Bennett T., Grossberg, L. & Morris, M. eds (2005) New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture & Society, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

 

Cottrell, S. (2011) Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument (Palgrave Study Skills). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Francis, P. (2009) Inspiring Writing in Art and Design: taking a line for a write. Bristol: Intellect books.

 

Leavy, Patricia. (2019) Handbook of Arts-Based Research. Guilford Press

 

Williams, G. (2014) How to Write about Contemporary Art. London: Thames and Hudson.

 

https://artistsresearchcentre.org.uk/research/writing-what-is-artistic-research/

 

https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/library-services/stories/cite-them-right-online