All These Other Rooms

<p dir="ltr">Background </p><p dir="ltr">Art Historian David Joselit asks – where is painting? AI/Val’s answer is that “Painting’s ‘location’ is now shaped by how it circulates, is exhibited, and interacts with various systems—making its meaning inseparable from its context and movement.” For this research the physical context is a hotel room used as an exhibition space in an art fair. Additional context is that the painter (me) must argue that the paintings are ‘research’. Both contexts – the hotel room in an art fair, and this research framework, have financial contexts, both channel capital – the art fair sells art, my wages pay for my research – thereby creating a circulatory system that shapes Painting’s discourse </p><p dir="ltr">Contribution</p><p dir="ltr">Through 60 paintings the research examines the process of creating exhibitions and artworks that challenge conventional separations between 'art' and 'research'. It functions as a site holding oppositional forces, marking differentiation between these modes while resisting clear definition. The methodology is partly categorised and contained through written documentation yet remains aware of its myriad readings: while this written account situates the work as 'research', its real-life encounter is as 'art'. This reveals inherent ambiguities and tensions in such categorisations. The work asks how creative practice operates across institutional frameworks and how context can determine meaning and reception. </p><p dir="ltr">Significance </p><p dir="ltr">Significance is demonstrated via multiple forms of peer validation: an accompanying essay by Sarah Walker, coverage in The Guardian by Nova Weetman, mentions in Lowbrow publication and a RRR radio review. Two works are being acquired by the Australian Catholic University Collection, with a forthcoming essay by Kelly Gellatly on alchemy and painting for an ACU publication. These accumulated reviews constitute equivalent peer recognition, demonstrating the work's contribution to contemporary painting discourse and its capacity to operate meaningfully across both art world and research contexts.</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>