Abstract

This practice-led research investigates clay-based impermanent creativity,
exploring this means of expression as a contribution to knowledge in the
expanded field of contemporary ceramic art practice.
The research considers recent developments in innovative work by
practitioners from the ceramic tradition, characterised by unconventional
uses of material, natural decay and weathering, deliberate destruction,
performance and physicality.
A key aspect of the research exploration is phenomenographic alignment of
personal praxical development with that of contemporaries sharing
backgrounds in the ceramic tradition. A case study approach based on a
reflexive Schönian and Kolbian cycle is utilised and research material is
viewed from trans-disciplinary perspectives to explore and elucidate its
nature, impacts and implications.
Impermanence in clay is found to de-familiarise art work, altering and
enhancing the creative role of percipients. Relationships between work,
maker and percipient are explored. Mediatisation of impermanent clay-based
art is considered for its impact on work’s reception and interpretation.
A perceptible shift is detected in such art practice from the arena of visual art
towards that of performance, moving artist and audience relationships
towards shared ownership in ceramic creativity, in which co-presence of work
and percipient are essential. Aspects of relational aesthetics offer a cogent
framework. Consideration is given to clay’s shared significance with other
basic materials such as textile in holding meaning beyond its physicality.
The thesis contributes to the discourse on methodological frameworks for
practice-led research and to academic writing on contemporary ceramic art in
its exploration of clay-based impermanence, encompassing maker
intentionality, material alteration and destruction, site/location and
significance, performativity and unrepeatability, and record. It provides a
transferable research model for considering creative impermanence.
Areas identified for further research include artist/audience relationships and
the nature of creativity, the role of location, performativity as an aspect of
contemporary practice, and curation of performance and impermanence.