What is Critical Practice?

‘Thou shalt not know exactly what thou dost, but thou shalt do it’
from Ten Commandments for Gilbert & George

The Critical Practice course forms one of the new routes of the BA Fine Art. It focuses on the relationship between art, location and language. This relationship is often seen as difficult, as it may be construed as a clash between separate activities: the immediacy of the vision and the mediation of text. The course does not differentiate between these categories, insisting they come together in a variety of spaces: the work, the talk, the exhibition, the publication and the audience among others. In this way, students are involved in a practice that is combines making, thinking and displaying. As a result, the medium recedes into the background. Of course, each area brings specific demands and sets different formal and conceptual problems, however, many contemporary artists work across disciplines. The contemporary nature of the course demands that students be aware of the implications of their work (language/actions) beyond their immediate remit. Therefore, the work comes to be made and thought of in a context. This context may be described as social, political, philosophical and cultural. It is, as Sherlock Holmes might describe it, ‘a two-pipe-problem’.

Nico & Charlie