What we feel and what we know

Full description

Background

Through the production of artworks, Powles and Westwood investigated types of knowledge in their creative works as something that may remain only partially articulated within the artwork. The research focused on the notion that knowingness arises within our bodies through experience and sensation as much as it is grasped within our minds. This research is supported by Alain Badiou’s ideas of creative work carrying aspects and meanings within it that can be described as fugitive (2019), Henri Bergeson’s ideas of material determination (2019) and Rebecca Fortnum and Elizabeth Fisher, in their investigations into working via the merging of conscious and unconscious approaches to art practice (2013).

Significance

Devising text as tapestries, Powles forms sentences promoting thoughts into words. Her large-scale textile works appear as formal abstractions yet are derived from complex family structures, again surfacing through conscious and unconscious awareness’s. Westwood’s images initially flow from the external world, haphazardly appearing from everyday life. His imageries can be seen as recognisable but equally be sensed as something unfamiliar. Westwood has a certain awareness that ordinary moments can feel intense. Text and language are ‘felt’ experiences that can shift in our minds from the routine to the peculiar.

Contribution

Established in 1891, Verein für Originalradierung München e.V. is a renowned kunstverein for the presentation of printmaking and the artists were selected through application to a committee. The artists offered a public talk hosted by Gesa Puell from the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München.