Painted spaces: an exploration through embodied and expansive practice

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the nature of perceptual and actual spaces created and occupied by painting. The focus is on two artistic projects taken up by the author that incorporate sculptural elements and site-specific explorations to create a series of work. The body of work retains characteristics unique to painting. These projects are situated against the background of a similar trend in contemporary painting that sees many painters taking their painterly gesture outside of the bounds and flat surface of the canvas. This investigation is also a search for establishing theory-practice relation as the author's own practice is analysed with the support of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological theory of embodied perception. This theory proposes the radical notion that sensation is an active reflective process and vision works in unity with different tactile and kinaesthetic senses. Reflective analysis of author's evolving practice – from the two-dimensional flat canvas to expansive installations on the terrain of a Himalayan village – opens up a productive opportunity for exploring how contemporary paintings incorporate and respond to space. Application of pigments through gestural brushstrokes on appropriate surfaces and strategically positioning these painted surfaces following compositional rules are ways of creating paintings in an expanded space.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial exploration in painting
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of embodied perception
• Merleau-Ponty and Michael Fried
• contemporary painting
• site-specific painting
• practice based research

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Aileen Blaney for her help with the initial draft of the paper, and the editors and reviewers of Journal of Visual Art Practice for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Copyright information

All the images except for Figure 5 are original art-works produced by Asmita Sarkar. The art-work and image copyright rests with Asmita Sarkar. Figure 5 image copyright has been granted by Kumar Galley for use in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Katharina Grosse (1961-), German artist, recognised for her large-scale site-specific paintings mix architecture and sculpture with paintings. https://www.katharinagrosse.com

2 Nalini Malini (1946-), Indian Painter recognised for her paintings of psychological and sociological trauma. She started working on expansive painting installations in 1990s. http://www.nalinimalani.com/installations.htm

3 Manish Nai (1980-), Indian painter known for his innovative use of mixed media. https://kavigupta.com/exhibitions/150-manish-nai-asymmetrical-objects-curated-by-tasneem-zakaria-mehta-dr.-bhau

4 Kartik Sood (1986-), Indian painter who explores video installations along with photography and print making. He installs these different media as assemblage in the gallery. https://www.kartiksood.com/

5 https://erskinesolarart.net/solar-light-art-installation-in-a-library/

6 Tanya Goel (1985-), Indian painter. In her installation in The 12th Gwangju Biennale ‘Imagined Borders’ she used fragments of Delhi’s architecture along with minimalist abstract painting. https://naturemorte.com/artists/tanyagoel/

7 Rana Begum (1977-), British/Bangladeshi, known for her colourful geometric abstraction, sometimes expand her paintings outside of the gallery. https://www.ranabegum.com/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Asmita Sarkar

Asmita Sarkar is an artist and researcher. Her research interests include contemporary drawing and painting, art-science collaboration in art and design and phenomenological aesthetics. She has published peer reviewed articles in Tracey, Drawing Research Theory and Practice, Visual Inquiry, Leonardo, amongst other, and finished her practice-based PhD (registered in Manipal Academy of Higher Education,) thesis on phenomenology of contemporary painting. Currently, she also teaches at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design, and Technology.