Situating Practices

About the exhibition

Situating Practices was a group show featuring the work of students engaged in research through practice in the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield and other institutions. Curated by Claire Booth-Kurpnieks, it included the work of Susan Carron Clarke, Adrian Evans, Laura Harris, Caitlin Kiely, Julia Mckinlay, Beth Morgan and Chrisitan Skovagaard Peterson. The following text is extracted from a longer response to the exhibition by Dr Louise Atkinson.

The Situating Practices exhibition brought together a variety of works which raised questions around the production of knowledge and research through the creative process. These possibilities included the opportunities that researchers had to combine new and existing skills, highlight methods and approaches to research. There was also a clear indication that engaging directly with materials allowed the making process to guide the research outcomes as part of a cyclical and reflexive practice. Furthermore, a willingness to borrow from other disciplines enabled the research to explore different ways of knowing.

Dr Louise Atkinson

The aim of the exhibition was to bring together practice-based postgraduate students from different creative practices to explore different configurations of research as art practice and/or art practice as research. Nine practitioners were selected from an open call on Curator Space to participate in the exhibition from the Huddersfield post-graduate research community and other academic institutions including Manchester School of Art, Leeds Becket University, University of Liverpool and Royal College of Art. During the selection process particular interest was given to practitioners who were using their creative practice as a way to investigate different spaces and communities, exploring different ways of disclosing narratives and stories through their creative practice or were using the exhibition as a conduit for developing their research practice in a public space. The material costs and artists’ expenses for the exhibition were provided by a grant from the Research Environment Development Fund from the University of Huddersfield Graduate School.

About the researcher

Claire Booth- Kurpnieks is a final year Collaborative Doctoral Award candidate with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. Her PhD research investigates the visitor experience of wellbeing at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, considering how aesthetic and social experiences facilitated by sculpture and the environment can enhance a person's wellbeing. Her research facilitates conversations and interactions between people and places through a qualitative methodology that includes mapping journeys and narrative articulations of experience. Her interest in the curatorial project of the ‘Situating Practices’ exhibition arose from the tension within her own PhD research, by thesis, about her identity as a research practitioner working at the boundaries of social science and art.