THE POWER OF NAMING; CO-OPTION IN FINE ART PRACTICE
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website John Lavell
Education
2005-2010 Practice-led PhD Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2003-2004 MA Fine Art Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1993 C&G (7307) Art Education City College, Liverpool
1988-1991 BA (Hons) Fine Art Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1986-1988 B/Tec Diploma Art& Design City College, Liverpool
Educational Experience
2012- Senior Fine Art Lecturer British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow
2008-2012 Fine Art Lecturer Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008-2012 Foundation (Overseas) Art Studies Tutor Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008-2010 Foundation Diploma/Degree Art TutorTyne Metropolitan College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2002-2003 Art Teacher Osaka International School, Mino, Japan
1999-2001 Assistant Language Teacher Hirakata Board of Education, Hirakata, Japan
1997-1999 Senior Instructor GEOS Language Systems, Wakayama, Japan
Selected Exhibitions
2016 BoConcept, Ukrainian Blvd, Moscow, Russia
2015 Pushpin (ii) Moscow Contemporary Arts Centre, Moscow, Russia
2015 Doctoring the Evidence #1: Ten Cities, Square Yard Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2015 The 2nd Nanjig International Art Festival, Nanjing, China
2014 Pushpin, Pop-up Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2012 The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands, Toomey Turell Fine Art, San Francisco, USA
2012 Digilogue, Unit 44, Hoults Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2012 Intersections, Centre for Life, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2012 Black Prince/Gray Prince, We Are Open Gallery, Middlesbrough
2011 Emblem of My Work, Shandy Hall, Coxwold
2011 Father, Wolstenholme Creative Space, Liverpool
2011 Salon Art Prize, Matt Roberts Gallery, London
2011 In a Constant State of Flux@151, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2011 The Obsessive Surface, Moving Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2009 Packing for the Crash, Gallery North, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2009 Northern Print Biennale, Laing Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008 Japan to Northumbria, Gallery North, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2007 Saikaide Grand Prix, Kagawa, Japan
2006 The Draughtsman’s Contract, Crook Hall Exhibition, Durham
2006 Dare to Dream, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool
2003 Mushin, Art Box Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2001 Washi, Papa Jon’s Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
1999 Drawings and Prints, Wakayama Civic Gallery, Japan
Artist-in-Residence
2012 (Summer) Hafnarborg Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland
2013 (Summer) The Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice
Upcoming: 2015 (Summer) Swatch Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Selected Projects
A Library is on fire
Lime Street Gallery http://alibraryisonfire.com/index.html
Unfinished Business
Wallington Hall http://unfinishedbusinessatwallington.weebly.com/
3º of Separation
Invited artist presentation, High Bridge Studios and Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne "http://www.3degreesofseparation.co.uk/" \o "" http://www.3degreesofseparation.co.uk/
Delay (Delayed by illness)
Panellist, Northumbria University: 'Forensic Traces and Indexical Signs’
"http://gn.northumbria.ac.uk/gn/news/delay" http://gn.northumbria.ac.uk/gn/news/delay
Publications
Essay: CONVOLUTION Number 3 (USA).
Blunt Force Trauma, Portfolio: Emerging research in Visual Culture.
He is dead and he is going to die: Introductory essay for Adam Hogarth and Sebastian Trend. UK touring exhibition.
I Can’t Follow You If You Don’t Move: Introductory essay for Graeme Durant and Andrew Maughan. USA touring exhibition.
Abstract Thesis
At every possible level, from undergraduate study to postgraduate research and teaching, art school practitioners working in the field of fine art have to negotiate the relationship between theory and practice. This practice-led research project involves an investigatory journey in which I explore the terrains of ‗interest‘ that have opened up, stimulated, and then informed, my studio and exhibition practices since I was an undergraduate art student. It is a journey that plots a shift from illustrative to poetic forms of creative practice. My central concern has been to understand how these theoretical terrains of interest interact with the practical production of artworks whilst remaining separate, self-sufficient entities. As a result, my aim has been to produce a doctoral submission in which the exhibition of artworks has an equivalent role to the thesis. In practice-led research neither should be subservient to the other.
My thesis proposes that the most persuasive way to respond to my topic is through an exploration of the indexical sign (as defined by C. S. Peirce) and the power of naming (as described in Michel Foucault‘s critique of the scientific systems of classification, resemblance, signs and signatures). My chapters explore, firstly, my interests in natural history classification and the political interpretations that critique the history of these systems and ideas; secondly, my interests in the forensic theories that notice the physical signs at a crime scene and then interpret them as indicators of criminal intentions; and lastly, my interest in the productive conflict created through the juxtaposition of poetic artworks and forensic titles, a combination that either ignores or celebrates the indexical nature of my studio techniques.
A period of living and working in Japan, where I studied the martial art of Kendo, was responsible for transforming my fascination with lists and glossaries into an interest in the creative tension between waza and keiko, between rigorous technique and intuitive freedom. The conclusion of my research journey applies a range of ideas about, and methodological engagements with, the power of naming to the realm of practice-led research which is, for this researcher, situated on the shadowy side of the poetics of exhibition reception.
Education
2005-2010 Practice-led PhD Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2003-2004 MA Fine Art Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1993 C&G (7307) Art Education City College, Liverpool
1988-1991 BA (Hons) Fine Art Newcastle Polytechnic, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1986-1988 B/Tec Diploma Art& Design City College, Liverpool
Educational Experience
2012- Senior Fine Art Lecturer British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow
2008-2012 Fine Art Lecturer Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008-2012 Foundation (Overseas) Art Studies Tutor Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008-2010 Foundation Diploma/Degree Art TutorTyne Metropolitan College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2002-2003 Art Teacher Osaka International School, Mino, Japan
1999-2001 Assistant Language Teacher Hirakata Board of Education, Hirakata, Japan
1997-1999 Senior Instructor GEOS Language Systems, Wakayama, Japan
Selected Exhibitions
2016 BoConcept, Ukrainian Blvd, Moscow, Russia
2015 Pushpin (ii) Moscow Contemporary Arts Centre, Moscow, Russia
2015 Doctoring the Evidence #1: Ten Cities, Square Yard Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2015 The 2nd Nanjig International Art Festival, Nanjing, China
2014 Pushpin, Pop-up Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2012 The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands, Toomey Turell Fine Art, San Francisco, USA
2012 Digilogue, Unit 44, Hoults Yard, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2012 Intersections, Centre for Life, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2012 Black Prince/Gray Prince, We Are Open Gallery, Middlesbrough
2011 Emblem of My Work, Shandy Hall, Coxwold
2011 Father, Wolstenholme Creative Space, Liverpool
2011 Salon Art Prize, Matt Roberts Gallery, London
2011 In a Constant State of Flux@151, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2011 The Obsessive Surface, Moving Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2009 Packing for the Crash, Gallery North, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2009 Northern Print Biennale, Laing Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2008 Japan to Northumbria, Gallery North, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2007 Saikaide Grand Prix, Kagawa, Japan
2006 The Draughtsman’s Contract, Crook Hall Exhibition, Durham
2006 Dare to Dream, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool
2003 Mushin, Art Box Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2001 Washi, Papa Jon’s Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
1999 Drawings and Prints, Wakayama Civic Gallery, Japan
Artist-in-Residence
2012 (Summer) Hafnarborg Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland
2013 (Summer) The Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice
Upcoming: 2015 (Summer) Swatch Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Selected Projects
A Library is on fire
Lime Street Gallery http://alibraryisonfire.com/index.html
Unfinished Business
Wallington Hall http://unfinishedbusinessatwallington.weebly.com/
3º of Separation
Invited artist presentation, High Bridge Studios and Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne "http://www.3degreesofseparation.co.uk/" \o "" http://www.3degreesofseparation.co.uk/
Delay (Delayed by illness)
Panellist, Northumbria University: 'Forensic Traces and Indexical Signs’
"http://gn.northumbria.ac.uk/gn/news/delay" http://gn.northumbria.ac.uk/gn/news/delay
Publications
Essay: CONVOLUTION Number 3 (USA).
Blunt Force Trauma, Portfolio: Emerging research in Visual Culture.
He is dead and he is going to die: Introductory essay for Adam Hogarth and Sebastian Trend. UK touring exhibition.
I Can’t Follow You If You Don’t Move: Introductory essay for Graeme Durant and Andrew Maughan. USA touring exhibition.
Abstract Thesis
At every possible level, from undergraduate study to postgraduate research and teaching, art school practitioners working in the field of fine art have to negotiate the relationship between theory and practice. This practice-led research project involves an investigatory journey in which I explore the terrains of ‗interest‘ that have opened up, stimulated, and then informed, my studio and exhibition practices since I was an undergraduate art student. It is a journey that plots a shift from illustrative to poetic forms of creative practice. My central concern has been to understand how these theoretical terrains of interest interact with the practical production of artworks whilst remaining separate, self-sufficient entities. As a result, my aim has been to produce a doctoral submission in which the exhibition of artworks has an equivalent role to the thesis. In practice-led research neither should be subservient to the other.
My thesis proposes that the most persuasive way to respond to my topic is through an exploration of the indexical sign (as defined by C. S. Peirce) and the power of naming (as described in Michel Foucault‘s critique of the scientific systems of classification, resemblance, signs and signatures). My chapters explore, firstly, my interests in natural history classification and the political interpretations that critique the history of these systems and ideas; secondly, my interests in the forensic theories that notice the physical signs at a crime scene and then interpret them as indicators of criminal intentions; and lastly, my interest in the productive conflict created through the juxtaposition of poetic artworks and forensic titles, a combination that either ignores or celebrates the indexical nature of my studio techniques.
A period of living and working in Japan, where I studied the martial art of Kendo, was responsible for transforming my fascination with lists and glossaries into an interest in the creative tension between waza and keiko, between rigorous technique and intuitive freedom. The conclusion of my research journey applies a range of ideas about, and methodological engagements with, the power of naming to the realm of practice-led research which is, for this researcher, situated on the shadowy side of the poetics of exhibition reception.
