Research theme: Memory and Matter
Re-examining the past using contemporary context through visual art, performance art and art research.
About our research
About our research
Memory matters. So does how we remember, especially in these urgent times of collective crisis and social, economic and ecological upheaval. In the Memory and Matter research group, we “re-configure the past in order to remember the future” (Karen Barad, feminist theorist). We use artistic and cultural practice to respond to global developments.
Our research is informed by societal change in the post-industrial age and information economy. We are interested in memory — both real and imagined. We study the status and givens of the past, and how memory and matter relate to each other.
Our members are internationally-recognised visual and performing artists, writers and theorists. We share common ground through the embodiment of ideas, their production or reproduction, and the material culture of physical and psychological properties within things, words and objects. We work across a spectrum of analytical and speculative fields of knowledge and experience.
Our cross-disciplinary, thematic research defies disciplinary structures or traditions. We are open to research-active staff and postgraduate students from across the University.
We are interested in hearing from potential PhD candidates with proposals in the areas we cover.
Our research areas
Our purpose is to share the specific and speculative ways that memory and matter are reflected in different researchers’ interests. We operate as a shared space of learning, and aim to understand memory and matter to help us envision or enact alternate futures.
Our areas of interest include:
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history, archives and heritage
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found or appropriated material
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museums, museology and collecting
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decolonisation
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digital and analogue technologies, innovation and obsolescence
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ecology, sustainability and climate justice
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physicalities of making and matter
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new materialisms
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the science and philosophy of memory
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hauntology
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aesthetics
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linguistic turn and fictioning
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abstraction
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modernities and ideologies
Selected projects
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Key exhibitions
McLeer, B (2021) Collateral, commissioned by Super Slow Way for British Textile Biennial
Osbaldeston, D (2016) The Top and Bottom of It and Mechanism for a Future Reference, Matt’s Gallery, London
Osbaldeston, D (2019) Abstract Then and Abstract Now (Drawing as an archaeology of the present, from the Neolithic to Gustav Metzger) The Drawing Research Forum, The Drawing Room, London
O’Reilly, O (2019) Hostile Environment, ASC Gallery, London
O’Reilly, O (2019) Haugesend International Print Festival, Haugusend Billedgalleri, Norway
Lewis, C, Mojsiewicz, K and Pettican (2019) Exhibition: Brass Art: TouchAR sited billboards and displays, commissioned by The Turnpike Gallery; Brass Art: TouchAR augmented reality app (Apple App Store and Google Play Store)
Griffiths, D (2017) Deep Field [Unclear Zine], commissioned by curator Prof. Elle Carpenter, Umea University Sweden and Nuclear Cultures Research Group Goldsmiths, Arts Catalyst, and Z33, Belgium
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Key publications
Osbaldeston, D (2021) Becoming Gustav Metzger, the Early Years Ben Uri Gallery, London
Eden, J (2021) Painters Talking Painting, international lecture programme in collaboration with Teaching Painting and Freelands Foundation, London
O’Reilly, O (2020) They Drifted Slowly to Eternity IMPACT Printmaking Journal, Centre for Print Research, UWE Bristol
Lewis, C, Mojsiewicz, K and Pettican (2019) Gestured by Brass Art: Gestures, Ambiguity and Material Transformation at Chetham’s Library in Intersecting Practices Contemporary Art in Heritage Spaces, Routledge
Griffiths, D et al (2018) Deep time moles: an interdisciplinary approach to geological archiving in Toland, A (ed) Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene CRC Press
Organisations we work with
British Textile Biennial
Freelands Foundation, London
IMPACT, Printmaking Journal
Matt’s Gallery, London
Contact information
Contact us
For general enquiries about our Painting Manchester research group, you can contact its lead Dr Brigid McLeer.