Practising with Turnbull: Timelessness and Trace in Sculptural Practice

This practice-led thesis describes the development of a sculptural practice through an examination of the work of the internationally recognised Scottish sculptor William Turnbull. As such, it constitutes a case study of what it means to ‘practise’ with another artist. I study the relevance of the descriptor ‘timeless’ which has frequently been applied to Turnbull’s work. In the course of this research, I examine different ways of thinking about time, informed by the work of such philosophers as Henri Bergson, Michel Serres and Jacques Derrida. The research is led by my own art practice. In the initial stages I am guided by the ideas and expertise of Turnbull with regard to practical considerations such as plinths and patinas. My research into the idea of timelessness uncovers the political implications behind the use of such terms as ‘timeless’ and ‘primitive’ in the history of Western Modernist art curatorship. Moving beyond the description of Turnbull’s work in these terms, I find a rich resource of more general ideas about the nature of sculpture in some of Turnbull’s own written work. Integrating these ideas, particularly his view of the sculpture as subject rather than mere object, into my own working methods becomes a form of ‘haunting’. I research Derrida’s ideas on hauntology, recognising that it pervades my research. The latter part of my research considers sculptural practice in the context of mourning and grief, causing me to use the personal as well as the ‘academic’ voice in my written exegesis. The works of Serres and Derrida assist me in considering the haunting that comes from the future as well as from the past. Influenced by Derrida’s idea of the ‘trace’ that carries into the future, I develop my concept of the gesture-plus-object, the physical embodiment of an unnoticed momentary gesture. I record the various points at which my art practice changes direction, employing new materials and methods, the outcome of my practising with Turnbull.