Metaphoring Visual Metaphors for Visual Art Research

In Art Practice as Research, Graeme Sullivan (2005) advances a seminal argument for art making as a rigorous mode of inquiry capable of generating knowledge comparable to that produced within positivist traditions. He conceptualizes visual art research through a complex framework. To render this model usable, Sullivan introduces a braided metaphor that operationalizes the framework while implicitly demonstrating the generative capacity of visual metaphors to reshape theoretical constructs themselves. Building on this premise, this visual essay approaches Sullivan’s framework not as a fixed schema but as an open invitation for methodological experimentation. Through a process of metaphoring—the conceptual melding of disparate ideas to generate new metaphors—the study develops a series of evolving visual constructions grounded in critical dialogue among theoretical and methodological discourses, contemporary art practice, and reflections on arts-based research projects. By narrating this process of visual metaphoring, this visual essay demonstrates how new visual configurations can extend and transform understandings of visual art research, while remaining responsive to the conceptual pliability at the heart of Sullivan’s paradigm-shifting thesis.