The National College
of Art & Design
The National College
of Art & Design
Research
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Binary Oppositions, what constitutes a pair?
The Practice-based research PhD questioned the fundamental definition of what constitutes a pair, this was established through shoe-derived forms created by textiles processes. The research and my art production interprets visual sources of surfaces found and exploited in Venice, paired with the iconic form of the shoe to address philosophical preponderances of a pair.
My answer found components of the binary are not of passive equality of replication, instead they were about dialogues and interactions of tensions and torsions of forces united. There were many binary relationships that emerged within the practice-based methodology that ultimately needed these counter actions to define the critical question. The contrasts and dynamics of opposing tensions defined my outcomes that were metaphorical of my methodology as well as in the physical artwork. The 'language' of a pair in turn questioned shoe-derived forms as a series and being the vehicle for narrating.
The research mode has made some shifts, now being lead by my experience of practice–based methodology and pedagogy from the art / design specialist institute where knowledge comes from the experiential method of 'doing' and from the interpretation of the made 'thing' to determine critical framework and the critical question that needed to be answered.
This has lead to interrogate the use of ones art practice paired with the academia criteria to provide research outcomes and the conflicts that arise as art practitioner informs the research practitioner.
The art practice has continued with the embroidered shoe-derived forms from the individual model to series and multiples. Recent work no longer creates isolated forms but instead considers the surface on which they inhabit developing the narrative themes.
Click here to download Helen McAllister's CV. (PDF)Click on an image to enlarge
 Detail from 'As long as I have nice shoes, there could be worse things than being beach wrecked at Alberoni' |
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 Bubble – Gum Pavements, Dublin |
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