Art as a Democratic Act – PhD

Art as a Democratic Act: The interplay of Content and Context

Oxford Brookes University (2004 – 2008)

AHRB funded doctorate

The doctorate was awarded on the basis of a 50:50 original contribution to Fine Art Practice and History of Art.
The History of Art doctoral research involved an analysis of Tate Modern’s first 6 years (2000-2006) as a case study for New Labour’s policies for art and culture, particularly the deleterious effect of requiring private money in order to obtain public funding, qg=hich, in the case of Tate Modern included the chilling and conservative impact of corporate sponsorship on curatorial ambition.
The art as research revolved around a fictional ‘metacorporation’ and its various tentacles into British democracy and culture. The metacorp was called BLACCXN and through BLACCXN, I explored with dark humour the impact of neoliberal policies on art and culture. This included site-specific paintings, performance art as BLACCXN PR guru, a novel, and architectural plans for the new House of Corporations, a third wing on the Houses of Parliament.

The thesis and its ammendment were written up a few years later, once I experienced how the disciplines of Social Anthropology and Archaeology are formed and perfomed. Published by IB Tauris in 2013