The turn towards matter and materials in contemporary philosophy presents the artist with many exciting possibilities as well as paradoxes. Amongst broad and varying new materialist perspectives, a recurring theme of reconsidering the agency of art objects continues to arise in the Humanities. What do these ideas really mean for a visual artist who subjectively builds material objects, whose art is apprehended and encountered by humans, who in turn engender their own meaning from these things? This project situates itself within a context of process-led research that critically examines the notion of agency and what value it holds in relation to an artist’s practice. The thesis argues that a resurgence of formalist values can provide an account for the aesthetic dimension of things that a new materialist perspective currently lacks.

Supervised by Dr Marianne Greated, Dr Elizabeth Hodson, Dr Mike Stubbs

A print copy of this thesis is available in the GSA Library