The 'Tableau Project'

The article provides the background and context for the research papers published in this edition of the Journal. The Tate Modern conference, Tableau: Painting Photo Object, in 2011, expanded a problematic about the pictorial distinctions embedded in the concept of the tableau form, this discussion being most recently aired in the writings of Michael Fried and Jean-François Chevrier. The wider context links the tableau form to notions of dispositif and apparatus, terms that have become widely linked to the mechanisms and rhetoric of the modes of address of art forms. The research papers and the Tate conference have been part of the wider 'Tableau Project' whose aim is to open up discussion around historical, theoretical and contemporary practices that are linked to the tableau form.

Mick Finch co-edited this issue of 'The Journal of Visual Art Practice' with Chris Smith.

The Tableau Project is an on-going investigation into how the tableau form situates thinking about pictorial practices that are not specific to questions of medium. The primary concept centres on an historical and theoretical context, coming from critical thinking in 18th century France in Diderot’s writing on theatre and painting and subsequently applied to photography, film and cinema. The project also considers questions of translation, in particular how the terms dispositif and apparatus are related to the tableau form.

This project has two key manifestations: an edited issue of the ‘Journal of Visual Art Practice’ and a series of artworks by Finch that explore this conceptual context through practice. These works are photo-reliefs, neither painting nor photography. They are conscious articulations of the tableau form through practice, exhibited in contexts which specifically explore questions about the tableau.

An exhibition, ‘Painting Tableau Stage’ (2013), at Ohio State University (OSU), developed from the visual symposium, ‘Picture/Tableau/Screen’ at the Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury (2012). Other exhibitors Beth Harland and Moyra Derby are also participants in the ‘Tableau Project’ as is Laura Lisbon, curator of ‘Painting Tableau Stage’. Finch exhibited three new works from his ‘Engram’ series at Canterbury; eight works in total were exhibited at OSU, of which one was new. Finch also conducted a seminar for OSU students on the tableau form and the exhibited works.

• Publisher
• Author