Louisa Bufardeci

PhD

My project sought to understand the complex relationship between contemporary art, race and privilege that was playing out in my practice. I found that like a sailboat heading into the wind, I needed to tack. So I turned my practice 45 degrees and found myself propelled by a wealth of instruction from First Nations and feminist philosophies. These zig-zag manoeuvres were mirrored in the art practice of tacking, a game of string figures I play with strangers in public spaces, in which I use one of my hands and they use one of theirs. By engaging with others and by putting relation at the centre of my practice, I found a way of making art that has a different effect. I called it a ‘tacktical methodology’.