ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that it is possible to identify a “research turn” within contemporary visual arts practice. It focuses on what is often referred to as fine art practice. The chapter considers the issues raised seem to have import for how practitioners think about research across the entire field of art, media and cultural production. Art practice is less concerned with the individual art object and more focused on art process and purpose. Under the sway of Conceptualism, creative practice involves a sharpening of focus on what might be called the “ontology” of the artwork – what art is or can be in this era. Art historians usually trace the origins of Conceptualism to Marcel Duchamp’s staging of the “readymade”. American artists were becoming aware of structuralist approaches to understanding language. Non-objective art was an art of concepts, propositions and problematic linguistic signs.
