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Abstract
This practice-based research project centres on the retrospective activation of the painted surface using advanced imaging techniques such as X-ray and infrared, combined with physical erasure; a process that exposes latent information and brings together a range of actions that reverse or alter the conventional sequence of oil painting. The methodology for this project employs interdisciplinary research at the intersection of painting and technology, deploying imaging practices associated with art conservation and cultural heritage digitisation. The studio practice responds to selected imaging techniques from these fields, including high-resolution digital scanning and X-ray, which are applied to my own paintings to generate an alternative view of the painted surface. This experimentation informs a body of work including paintings, light-based works, and video projection. Research into the artistic, historical, political, and semiological implications and potentials of iconoclasm as a secular, creative act complements this experimentation. Using an ‘atemporal’ framework, these theoretical and practical strategies are applied to artworks that quote the forms, content, and sensibilities of Baroque painting. The principal objective of the research is to heighten the aesthetic and affective registers of touch and tactility by exposing and augmenting the material qualities and physical gestures of painting.
This interdisciplinary project reveals how advanced imaging practices and iconoclastic interventions generate alternative understandings of the painted surface beyond those solely dependent on pictorial content and visible material phenomena. Key questions that locate this research in a broader art/technology context are: What are the aesthetic, perceptual and philosophical implications of advanced technologies of reproduction? And, how have these implications affected contemporary art practice? These questions are informed by and expand on theorisation that examines relations between imaging methods, art, and the concept of ‘aura,’ particularly the work of Walter Benjamin. This project contributes to the field of contemporary painting by investigating a largely unexplored area in which art conservation imaging practices and studio-based painting techniques are synthesised, highlighting relations between material layers, gesture and image, and technology and image production.