This series of interrelated works consisted of a large scale ink and watercolour drawing and a limited edition text-poster, both drawing on Hitchcock's idea of the 'mcguffin' as a ruse for exploring the compromised status of the artist's voice in history painting after modernism.
This artefact is one of a series of related works through which I investigated the idea of ‘voice’ as a pictorial and literary metaphor in contemporary two-dimensional narrative art. This body of research was funded through a Creative and Professional Development Bursary awarded by the Scottish Arts Council in 2008. My research methodologies for this project included: figurative drawing, digital printmaking, collage and mixed-media works on paper and canvas, creative writing (in samizdatz form) and a live spoken public performance-piece. My research for this topic was disseminated through the following exhibitions and events: Father Perspective/ Mother Space, Limoncello, London, 2010; The Mundane Shell, the Glasgow Print Studios, (programmed as part of the 2008 Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art); Corridor of Uncertainty, Curtin University, Perth Australia, 2009; Castles of Illusion, Intermedia the Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow, 2011; ‘The Great Macguffin,’ a live performance organised as part of the Prawn’s Pee event series (curated by Rob Churm and Rebecca Wilcox), programmed for the 2012 Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art. This artefact and related research were cited in articles by Alex Pollard and Neil Mulholland published in the peer-reviewed periodical: The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (Vol 2, No. 3, 2009). I will describe and contextualise this artefact and related research in a conference paper due to be delivered at the two-day AHRC sponsored conference on the subject of ekphrasis, Writing into Art, (Strathclyde University and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, June 2013). This specific artefact and research project form a component of my on-going broader investigation of fate of storytelling in visual art after modernism, a currently neglected area of investigation in both practice-led and scholarly research into Fine Art/ Art History.