Sarah Rudledge

The central concerns of this research project are situated within the field of contemporary site orientated and lens-based artistic practice. Drawing on particular notions of feminism and postconceptual methodologies the research considers daily rituals, tactics and actions for artistically reimagining lived experience. Using a variety of distributed methods, I speculate upon ways that daily routines can be utilised as forms of restoration, resistance and care. As practice-led research, this project imagines ways that artistic gestures which hold space and take time might suggest more mindful and empathetic engagements with the world.

Significant components of this research were developed and tested through my own lived experience. By speculating on ways that care and restoration form a regular part of daily life within the ontological provisions of art, this project has assumed significance as both a personal and an artistic pursuit. To do this, I proposed that ‘caring’ and ‘restoring’ are founded in action, rather than in feelings alone. Consequently, I believe that a form of resistance could then be shaped by working against established behaviours of ‘care’ or ‘restoration’. Then, by practicing these actions as an artistic endeavour, I aimed to suggest alternate understandings and means of structuring subjective experience.

Feminist thought focused on ‘care’ and ‘subjectivity’ is utilised throughout the research and further contextualised through feminist art practice in which one voice among a diverse spectrum of critical artistic dialogue constitutes many feminisms. With this plurality in mind, a feminist epistemology centred upon the body and the play of difference is adopted in conjunction with a postconceptual understanding of contemporary art.

Research Areas

Site-orientated, feminist methodologies, lens based, post conceptual art, folly, repetition, relational practice, performance

Connect