This research proposes translation as an appropriate phenomenological methodology for an expanded painting practice. Frameworks for expanded painting have been suggested, notably by critic and theorist Rosalind Krauss (1986), who proposed a phenomenological methodology for understanding expanded practices, but no consensus exists among theorists and practitioners. There is currently no scholarship that examines practice-led expanded painting research as a translation, but various visual and cross-media sub-categories of translation studies such as inter-semiotic translation (Campbell and Vidal, 2019), adaptation (Raw, 2013) and ekphrasis (Shapiro, 2007) indicate the potential of translation within the fine arts. The practice of R.H. Quaytman was a key influence in understanding expanded painting practice through translation. This research presents the translation of an individual practice through its re-contextualisation within the expanded field of painting. It situates expanded painting through the embodied interpretations of a source photograph, which translates it by recontextualising it. The results provide the rationale for translation as a methodology within an expanded painting practice. The results were used to situate the practice within a wider historical context through comparisons with the practices of Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens and Charline von Heyl.

Expanded painting was interpreted in this practice-led research as painting beyond modernist forms and means. Critic and theorist Isabelle Graw (2018) proposes that expanded painting be considered as a ‘language, albeit from a semiotic perspective’ (p. 20) which was a key influence in this research for translation as a methodology within expanded painting. An individual expanded painting practice is examined in the context of translation, from its source to its final translation at the end of the research. This research began by identifying and using a photograph of the artist’s own studio as source material and as a context for practice. Following preliminary investigations of the photograph, the studio desk was selected as the site and surface for translation. The studio desk was translated through digital photography, printing, readymade objects and writing. These practices were defined as translations because they re-contextualise a source, which allows an interrogation of the relationships between them. The identification of equivalences and differences between the source and the translation brings to the forefront an understanding of intuitive and reflective elements in the artistic practice. It examined how the source and translation are not binary opposites, but how they have overlapping and connected meanings, which are examined through translation theory.

Translation involves interrogating a reciprocal relationship between an embodied self and a source. It is an interpretation that involves understanding the source through an embodied engagement with it. A key influence is Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Task of the Translator' (1923), where Benjamin considered translation as a creative and original work of art. He believed translators should be free to consider the translative possibilities of each translation, rejecting notions of fidelity to a singular interpretation. This research draws also on translation theorist Edwin Gentzler’s (2017) suggestion that translation is understood as a circulation of ideas across cultural borders. Translation was understood in this research as a critical practice-led methodology, which provided a framework for understanding this cross-media expanded painting practice. It is a methodology that allowed intuitive practice to generate artwork through critical intuitive and reflective analysis. Translation was found to be a generative force in practice-led research, as each examination of the source material resulted in a new translated work, formed through the artist’s interpretation. Translation offers a framework for historically situating individual practice within its wider field. The original contribution to knowledge of this practice-led research is situated in both expanded painting and translation.