Transgressive Play: Contiguity and Excess in the Creation of an a/r/tographical Text

Abstract

In artist-teacher practice, what separates the art practice of an artist-teacher from their art teaching? At what point does art practice stop and art teaching begin? In what instance does an artwork concept begin? Where does an idea for a student art activity come from? Is the creative process different in conceptualizing our own artwork compared to conceptualizing an art task for students? How does artist-teacher practice embody knowledge and at what point is this knowledge generated?This a/r/tographical lived inquiry captures the process of our thinking through a concept for an art installation, in contiguity with conceptualizing an art activity for students. The questions above underlie our explorations. This article is presented in reflexive form where conversations, images, and reflections are woven together to render a moment in transition between us. These rendered movements reveal that in-between reflections come the generation and interplay of our subjectivities as teacher-artists. Artistic knowledge is embodied in making and pedagogic conversations, and is ambiguous at the onset of inquiry. In our intersection we find that we are connected by our childhood fantasies and obsessions through playful acts which resist heteronormativity. In turn, the inquiry becomes a polyphonous text which vacillates between resolution and unfinalizability to encapsulate the process of artistic research.