Abstract:
This thesis examines contemporary artworks by Teghan Burt, Paul Lee, Campbell Patterson
and Hannah Maria Schmutterer that utilise as their primary medium fabric objects that might
usually sit within the realm of the domestic or be located on our bodies––such as clothing,
towels and blankets. These objects have been recycled by the artists and incorporated into the
series discussed. They appear old and worn or degraded by touch, yet the immense lure that
they hold is still strong.
Exploring these through a primarily phenomenological framework, particular consideration
will be given to how these artworks feel when they are engaged with in physical space. The
approach will be deconstructive, and will focus in detail on the notions of abjection and
formlessness that were first written about by Georges Bataille and expanded on by Julia
Kristeva, Rosalind E. Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois. It will also give attention to Terror-Gothic
as a mode of expression for the vagaries and contradictions of postmodernity.
The thesis contends that the artworks presented are a sublime personification of what it feels
like to live in this contemporary time. Through stalling or fragmenting time and conceptual
location in multiple spaces, the artworks pull at conflicting desires for newness, the urge to
recycle, the inclination to touch and the terror that comes with dwelling on this for too long.