Art (Phd)

An art research degree is not a continuation of studio practice or a residency, but instead asks you to place your work in relation to that of other practitioners in a contemporary and historical context. Originality can consist of different combinations of existing knowledge as a means of demonstrating original practice.

Typically, we enable you to focus and refine detailed aspects of your practice that you locate very specifically in a range of knowledge fields that may or may not previously have been associated with fine art. It encourages you to explore more critically – and make connections with and between – the thoughts and actions of others, and your own imperatives as a practising artist.

Through developing dialogues and exchanges within your supervisory team, and external connections made as part of your research, you will then be able to put forward your completed research project and take the first steps in expanding your connections with a larger artistic and academic community. Research students are encouraged to present conference papers, participate in seminars, public exhibitions and other forms of critical exchange, as part of the research process.

You will write a thesis in parallel with the practice-based research, that should demonstrate an original contribution to knowledge. We will help you focus on the appropriate practice for pursuing your research, and refine appropriate forms of discourse and dissemination.

Research Areas

Staff specialisms include:

art and biblical interpretation
Ethiopian artistic and architectural heritage
curatorial practice
socially engaged practice
curation in a community context
contemporary painting
Modernism re-explored in contemporary fine art practice
agendas around art and wellbeing
concrete poetry
artists’ publishing
contemporary drawing practice and pedagogy
sculpture
and the extended field in relation to performance and video.

This research contributes to the research priority area Being Human: Past, Present and Future and Creative Practice as Research.