Talks and in Conversations
SHAPESHIFTER: Painting & Performance, London 10th July 6pm (2024), UAL Doctoral School, London
Talk by artist Sarah Kate Wilson and in-conversation with Catherine Wood (Director of Exhibitions & Programmes Tate Modern) to coincide with the launch of Edition 9.2 of the Journal of Contemporary Painting. Organised by Professor Daniel Sturgis, principal editor of JCP, in partnership with MA Painting at Camberwell College of Arts.
Wilson's talk draws upon her recently published text Paintings Liveness published in 2024 within Edition 9.2 of the Journal of Contemporary Painting. Her talk and text reveal how painting’s relationship with performance, particularly during the second part of the twentieth century, has led to painting’s liveness. This, she asserts, is apparent in paintings by Daniel Buren, Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, works by the Gutai Art Association and performances by Ei Arakawa. The inauguration of a performance programme at Bauhaus in Germany, Black Mountain College in America and the formation of the Gutai Art Association in Japan are highlighted by Wilson as important milestones. Writing by RoseLee Goldberg and Peggy Phelan on performance, J. L. Austin’s speech act theory as well as Satori, an expression from Zen Buddhism meaning enlightenment, are woven into this text. David Joselit’s declaration that the medium of painting is live and ‘On Air’ is drawn into her argument for painting’s liveness, whilst Catherine Wood’s curatorial project A Bigger Splash: Painting After Performance (2012) Tate Modern, London and her own curatorial project Painting in Time (2015–16) set the stage for this text.
The Journal of Contemporary Painting (JCP) is a discursive peer-reviewed publication concerned with the practice of contemporary painting in its broadest sense. JCP treats painting as a context for discussion, exploring its sphere of influence, rather than as a medium-specific debate and is particularly interested in research emerging from practice-based projects.
Sarah Kate Wilson completed her MFA in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art (2010), and AHRC funded Practice based PhD at University of Leeds (2017). Wilson has had solo exhibitions at BALTIC 39, Newcastle, Armory Center for the Arts, California and CAVE Leeds. Her Painting Performances have been staged at: Palais de Tokyo, Royal Academy of Arts (London), Museum of London, BALTIC 39. In 2019 as part of the Bauhaus Centenary Celebrations she undertook a research residency at Bauhaus, Dessau focussing on the Stage Curriculum. Her research culminated in performances staged to launch the new Bauhaus Museum made in collaboration with her colleagues and students from Camberwell. She curated Painting in Time, 2015-16, Tetley, Leeds, UK which toured to the Sullivan Galleries, SAIC, Chicago, USA. She is Senior Lecturer of BA Painting at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.
