Arts-based Research

I make art to generate new knowledge through research, often on my own but sometimes in collaboration with colleague Dr Emese Hall (University of Exeter). Media is chosen to align with the purpose of each project.

View Emese’s academic profile.

Fragile landscapes, 2024

This is a collaboration with Emese Hall. After a couple of years of exploring our artist teacher identities, we are expanding our explorations from professional spaces to broader landscapes. Through these works we are exploring the fragility of the balance between humans and environment.

The last nine images were created by me first and the more recent images are a visual response by Emese.

Glorious Wales I; Mixed media (calendar page, collage); Emese Hall

Glorious Wales II; mixed media (calendar page, collage); Emese Hall

Debris on the Shoreline; Calendar page; Emese Hall

Seas of Blood; Mixed media (calendar page; thread); Emese Hall

Seafoam or Sea Creature?; Mixed media (vintage map, packaging paper; graphite; wool); Emese Hall

Strength and Vulnerability; Mixed media (vintage map; tinfoil; thread); Emese Hall

Torpedo (detail); Mixed media (packaging paper; thread; tracing paper; sharpie); Emese Hall

Torpedo (detail); Mixed media (vintage map; tinfoil; thread; packaging paper; tracing paper; graphite); Emese Hall.

Torpedo (detail); Mixed media (vintage map; packaging paper; graphite; thread); Emese Hall

Torpedo (detail); Mixed media (packaging paper; card; thread); Emese Hall

Heading inland; Mixed media (vintage map, thread, packaging paper, graphite and tinfoil), Rachel Payne

Where the land meets the sea; Mixed media (Graphite, tracing paper, vintage map and thread on card); Rachel Payne

Location; Mixed media (vintage map; packaging paper; graphite; thread), Rachel Payne

Branscombe; Mixed media (vintage map; tinfoil); Rachel Payne

Spaces where we meet; Mixed media (vintage map; tinfoil; graphite; tracing paper; thread); Rachel Payne

Its all about the marks; Mixed media (tracing paper; tinfoil; sharpie); Rachel Payne

A response to Teaching for People Who Don't want to Teach; Mixed Media (twine, tinfoil, book pages); Rachel Payne

Our artist teacher identities, 2023

This is a collaboration with Emese Hall. Our arts-based research project involves creating, sharing and reflecting on artworks in response to the theme 'my artist teacher identity'.

These works were created during an art retreat and demonstrates the generation of our ongoing visual language, with the butterfly motif representing Emese’s professional identity.

My artist teacher identity, 2022

This is a collaboration with Emese Hall. Our arts-based research project involves creating, sharing and reflecting on artworks in response to the theme 'my artist teacher identity'.

Making the invisible visible (film).

Hall, E. & Payne, R. (2024) VAPE-ing; ch. 5 in R. Bourgault & C. Rosamond (Eds.) Disruption and Convergence: Generating New Conversations through Arts Research. Leiden | Boston: Brill.

Light and dark, interview preparation notes, pen and tissue paper

Blind spot, deconstructed charcoal box, acrylic paint and biro.

Blind spot 1, photograph inside the reconstructed charcoal box, thread and staples

Round peg, square hole 2; pen on tracing paper, 18.5cm x 26cm

Round peg, square hole 3; pen on tracing paper, 17.5cm x 27cm

Round peg, square hole 4; pen on tracing paper, 19cm x 23.5cm

Round peg, square hole 5; pen on tracing paper, 24cm x 31cm

Visible, Mixed media (vintage fabric, thread, tracing paper), 25cm x 25cm

Scrunchie, Mixed media (tracing paper, pen, colouring pencils, thread, tape), approx. 16cm x 16cm

Invisible, Mixed media (vintage fabric, thread, tracing paper), 25cm x 25cm

Inside out 1; pen on tracing paper; approx. 10cm x 12cm

Spaces in-between, tracing paper, 10cm x 10cm

Butterfly envelope with poem,
Mixed media (vintage fabric, thread, paper, organza bag),
15.5 x 20.5cm — Butterfly envelope with poem, Mixed media (vintage fabric, thread, paper, organza bag), 15.5 x 20.5cm

Poem,
Mixed media (paper, pen, organza bag), — Poem, Mixed media (paper, pen, organza bag),

Deconstructed token,
Mixed media (yarn, paper, tissue paper, cardboard, thread, ribbon),
22 x 22cm — Deconstructed token, Mixed media (yarn, paper, tissue paper, cardboard, thread, ribbon), 22 x 22cm

Artist teacher identity,
Mixed media (collaged paper, thread),
21 x 29.5cm — Artist teacher identity, Mixed media (collaged paper, thread), 21 x 29.5cm

Shock of the New, 2020

I engaged in an autoethnographic analysis of my working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through reflexive journaling and art practice I documented my experiences of transferring face to face teaching and learning to remote learning platforms.

Part of this artwork is presented through the film ‘Learn, unlearn, relearn’.

Journal article: Payne, R. (2020) Shock of the New, International Journal of Education in Art and Design, 39(4), pp. 724-738; https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12317

Learn,
1 of 3 digital photographs,
Textile square, 6 x 6cm — Learn, 1 of 3 digital photographs, Textile square, 6 x 6cm

Unlearn,
2 of 3 digital photographs,
Deconstructed textile square — Unlearn, 2 of 3 digital photographs, Deconstructed textile square

Relearn,
3 of 3 digital photographs,
Deconstructed textile square reformed into a ball — Relearn, 3 of 3 digital photographs, Deconstructed textile square reformed into a ball

Threads that bind us,
Box made of embroidered fabric & thread,
8 x 8cm — Threads that bind us, Box made of embroidered fabric & thread, 8 x 8cm

Anti-Neoliberal Booth, 2019-20

This free-standing installation was exhibited at Oxford Brookes University as part of the Think Human Festival. Being given permission to stop in the contemporary university is rare, and so the booth aimed to be an experience that transported people away from the world of work by providing a dignified space to stop for 5 minutes.

Anti-Neoliberal Booth film.

Anti-Neoliberal Booth,
Installation with fish tank, pump and chair — Anti-Neoliberal Booth, Installation with fish tank, pump and chair

Fish tank inside the Anti-Neoliberal Booth,
Installation with fish tank, pump and chair — Fish tank inside the Anti-Neoliberal Booth, Installation with fish tank, pump and chair

Ribbon on the door,
Anti-Neoliberal Booth,
Installation with fish tank, pump and chair — Ribbon on the door, Anti-Neoliberal Booth, Installation with fish tank, pump and chair

Drawing a response to the NSEAD’s Survey Report, 2016

Emese and myself were part of a team who designed and interpreted the National Society in Education for Art and Design (NSEAD) survey report 2015-16. We asked over 1100 art educators in England how policy had impacted their experience of delivering the subject in schools. Emese and I presented an artistic response to the survey report through a series of drawings.

NSEAD survey report

Payne, R (2016) Drawing a response to the NSEAD’s Survey Report, Humanistic Perspectives on Education blog post.