Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -1- Refsum 2003

This paper has been published as:

Refsum, Grete. 2003. "Historical Studies in Practice Based Art and Design Research". In
(theorising ) History in Architecture. Edited by Elisabeth Tostrup and Christian Hermansen.
Oslo School of Architecture, pp. 229-238.

HISTORICAL STUDIES IN PRACTICE-BASED

ART AND DESIGN RESEARCH

Introduction
This paper attempts to initiate a debate about the relationship between art and design practice
and history. It will clarify how the fields of history and art or design relate to each other;1
articulate how artists and designers approach and use historical material in their praxis;2 and
shed light on the character of the historical information that practitioners may need.

Historians deal with the past in order to create an understanding of what has been and now is
history. Artists and designers treat historical material as a means from which they can extract
information that may help them solve present tasks and reach future ends. They stand on the
edge of the past, working from the present towards the future, continuously conceptualizing
ideas into finished works of art and design that add to the historical material.3

Since fields of practice, art and design included, are complex phenomena in which different
kinds of knowledge are involved, the more theoretical informed practitioners do not
necessarily produce the best art or design work.4 Therefore, the attitude among artists and
designers to information history is regarded a matter of personal affinities and interests; it
varies from superficiality to studies in depth – from looking up a book in a library and visiting
the nearest monument, to lifelong interest, historical studies, and research.

Art and design praxis is rooted in traditions that constitute fields of knowledge; it is executed
and operate within professions that define its history and self understanding. Although there

1
The terms ’art and design’ are used in an inclusive, wide meaning, which comprises phenomena that manifest
themselves in various ways.
2
‘Practice’ means “the doing of something”, while ‘praxis’, from Greek prattein, denotes “the practice of a
technical subject or art, as opposed to or arising out of the theory of it” (TNSOED 1993 vol. 2: 2317 and 2321).
3
On the question about the sources of art or design ideas see the book Sources of Architectural Form. A Critical
History of Western Design Theory (Gelernter 1995).
4
See the article “Bête comme un peintre? Towards an Epistemology for Visual Arts” (Refsum 2002).
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -2- Refsum 2003

hardly exists a connection between historical knowledge and the quality of performance on
the individual level, consequences will be registered when praxis is seen in its wider context.
Professions can only survive if they are supported by a discipline that provides theoretical
knowledge for the activities executed;5 expansion and quality in a profession results from the
interplay between practice and theoretical work (Dunin-Woyseth 1991-92: 96). In this
broader perspective, the importance of theory building and critical studies, that treat the
perspectives and needs of art and design practitioners, are evident.

This paper first, considers and defines the terms ‘history’ and ‘research’; second, it treats
practice-based research projects involving history on a general level; and third, it presents the
author’s study of Irish high crosses as an example of how an artist relate to historical material.

I TERMINOLOGY

Terms related to history

History
The Norwegian historian John Peter Collett defines history as that which the historians deal
with (Collett 2002: 1). History stems from Greek histori, which means to acquire knowledge
by exploration, and the knowledge that historians get is one about the past. The term history
has three meanings; it denotes the past reality, the science of the past, and the narrative about
the past (Kjeldstadli 2000: 36). Beside history as a discipline, there are separate disciplines for
concrete themes, there among art and architecture,6 and in addition, most disciplines have the
need to reflect historically about themselves. The way historians relate to time, distinguishes
the field of history from other interests in the past. Even when treating their own times,
historians see the events in relation to its time and place (Kjeldstadli 2000: 104). History is
the account of the historians based on the questions they ask to the past. Historical knowledge
is the answer to the questions to the past that the historians in their own times are concerned
with (Collett 2002: 11).7 Historians are free to question anything about the past. According to
Collett, they treat that which for them is socially relevant to human activity and behaviour.

5
Without a profession art practice will deteriorate into craft and the production of popular goods.
6
Other fields like archaeology and ethnology may treat the same objects.
7
In Norwegian: ”Historisk kunnskap er svaret på de spørsmål om fortiden som historikerne i sin samtid er
opptatt av” (Collett 2002: 11).
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -3- Refsum 2003

However, historians constitute a social group that compete in deciding what is best practice,
relevant questions, and right definitions (Collett 2002: 14).

Methodology and Sources

To have knowledge about the past does not make a person a historian. Historians gain their
knowledge through research, that is, they follow certain methods established within the field
(Collett 2002 b: 2). Historical knowledge emerges when historians apply their methods to the
material that the past has left us, to the sources. Everything may be possible sources, but some
sources are more relevant than others. A something becomes a source for historical inquiry
when it may help answering a question about the past.

Basis in any historical methodology is to be critical. What historians think about the past, has
to be verified by sources. To apply critical method means that hypotheses proposed are seen
against the sources. If the sources do not verify the thinking, it has to be rejected. Historians
also assume a critical attitude towards the sources: whether they are authentic, relevant, and
can be used to shed light on the problem in question (Collett 2002 b).

Terms related to research

Research
The term research has two meanings: to search for something and scientific enquiry
(TNSOED 1993: vol. 2: 2558).8 In the latter form, research asks questions in a systematic way
and is the methodical search for knowledge. Professor Ken Friedman says: “Research offers
us the tools that allow critical thinking and systemic inquiry to bring answers out of the field
of action” (Friedman 2002: 9).

Art and design practice often involves research in the former understanding of the term, but
praxis as the production of ideas and artefacts, is not synonymous to research defined as
scientific inquiry. The design theorist Nigel Cross writes: “The whole point of doing research
is to extract reliable knowledge from either the natural or the artificial world, and to make that
knowledge available to others in re-usable form” (Cross 2000: 98).

8
The Norwegian language has two separate terms for these different meanings; ‘forske’ that is scientific
research, and ‘utforske’ that is non-scientific.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -4- Refsum 2003

Practice-based research
The notion that artists and designers do research may seem foreign. However, artists and
designers often face problems in their work to which there are no immediate answer. In the
book The Craft of Research is said: “Most everyday research begins not with finding a topic
but with confronting a problem that has typically found you, a problem that left unresolved
means trouble” (Booth, Colomb, and Williams 1995: 49). Caught in such situations, some
practitioners become motivated to solve their problems and start researching.

The process of producing art or design involves questions linked to: premises, function and
use, materials and techniques, implementation, etc. Besides, there are questions connected to
the profession itself that ought to be treated. Research undertaken by artists or designers is
principally of two kinds: they can work out an ordinary research project with more or less
relevance to their praxis, or the art or design process itself is regarded as research. The former
type is accepted in Norway, given that the practitioners are qualified as researchers.9 The
methodology of research will depend upon the research questions asked and previous research
that can be taken as models.

Art and design processes as research

Practice-based research as an art or design project, in which the primary outcome is works of
art or design, is still under debate. Cross is spokesman for the stand that design activity may
be executed as research, given that the process incorporates characteristics that are normal
features of good research in any discipline. The research project should be: purposive,
inquisitive, informed, methodical, and communicable (Cross 2000: 98). According to
Christopher Frayling, Rector at Royal College of Art, this kind of practice-based art research
at least has to be understandable and communicable. The artist researching has to demonstrate
a critical knowledge of the research methods appropriate to the field of study, and give
account for “the route map” that led to the results (Frayling 2001: 9-10).10

Historical and research terms combined

Historical research

9
”Dr. kunst” 1999: 5.
10
See also UK Council 1997: 15.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -5- Refsum 2003

Historians have through centuries established traditions of research. According to the

Norwegian historian Knut Kjeldstadli, historians doing research have to decide upon at least
seven choices: a theme that has interest; theories that may help ask new questions; a statement
of problem; a method, i.e., a way to do research so that the questions set up may be answered;
material and sources; techniques for collecting and analyzing the material; and finally, how to
present the findings (Kjeldstadli 2000: 47).

Today, the common attitude among historians is to understand, rather than explain causally,
why things happened (Kjeldstadli 1999: 122). Methodologically, understanding is linked to
interpretation and belongs to the tradition of hermeneutics, from Greek hermeneuin to
interpret (Nerheim 1995: 266-267).

Practice-based art and design historical research

Practice-based art or design research, in which a research project that has relevance to praxis
is worked out, may concern history. In this case, the practitioners doing research must apply
appropriate historical research methods. Practitioners ought to be zealous in finding adequate
research tools without going beyond their professional capability. As far as possible, they
should collaborate with supervisors and partners who can help them.

The usefulness of this kind of research rests on the specific perspective that the artist or
designer doing research may take towards historical material, asking questions and
interpreting the sources differently from other historical researchers. The conclusions in this
kind of research will contribute to building the knowledge base of the making fields.
Historiographically, art and design historical research will add to other fields that treat the
same material from different angles.

II ART AND DESIGN PROCESSES AND HISTORY

Approaches to historical material
When artists or designers look at artefacts, they deal with the same material as historians may
define as sources.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -6- Refsum 2003

Discovering approach
The simplest form of approach towards historical material may tentatively be called a
‘discovering approach’: one continuously finds and collects things of interest without digging
deeper into contexts or references. Artists and designers become inspired and store
information that may be useful in making processes. This discovering approach is encouraged
in most art or design schools.

Searching approach
Another approach is to look for something in particular. This is a searching activity, to
research in an unscientific meaning.11 Artists and designers may try to understand the history
of the field in which they work, they may seek previous solutions to problems that
resemble contemporary questions, role models for their activities, or simply inspiration. This
‘searching approach’ may be executed superficially or in depth. If it is carried out
systematically using historical critical methods, it becomes historical research.

Historical studies
Art and design processes, which are research projects, may include searching activities related
to historical material. Research methodology must structure this kind of projects as a whole,
and all inquiries integrated in them should keep academic standards. Since this kind of
research aims at producing new works of art or design, and has no pretension of
understanding the past, the approach to historical material within them may be called
‘historical studies’. In research projects, one has to give reasons for what is done and the
questions arise:
! what constitutes quality in this kind of historical studies?
! what kind of methodologies should be applied in them?
! what characterises such historical studies from research?

Historical studies in art and design processes as research

Quality
Quality in any research project must be related to the success and efficiency of the project,
whether the problems in question are solved elegantly or not. In art or design processes that
11
To search, from Latin circare to go around connected to circus, circle, to go about or look through or examine
in order to find (TNSOED 1993: vol. 2, p. 2746).
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -7- Refsum 2003

are research projects historical studies within them are subordinated to the art or product
development. Quality in such projects are twofold: the praxis result must be satisfying, and
the advocacy for the research process and the studies undertaken, the “route mapping”, must
be convincing. Practitioners must describe their processes, defend the choices taken, and show
how the questions asked are answered. Critical attitude and good judgement are expected in
all matters. Practitioners doing research must never go beyond their competence, especially
not theorise without proper evidence.

Methodology
When the art or design process generates a question of history, one has to start with acquiring
a basic understanding of the theme; literary studies and travels are the means. From the
literature sources can be traced. The researcher should give account for the choices taken and
articulate what is interesting in the sources. As far as possible, artists and designers ought to
know the objects of study by tangible experience. The encounter with the sources, whether
literary or real, should be documented by photography, drawings and textual comments. Such
activities are analytic and should be related to the questions asked and the art or design project
that constitutes the research problem. Finally, the connections between the studies done and
the research outcome should be demonstrated.

Practitioners should persistently keep their own questions in mind, and avoid being trapped by
premises set by other fields.

Characteristics
Artists and designers use historical material as a means to an end. Their questions may be too
broad or too restricted to be scholarly researchable. But in this context, in which historical
studies do not pretend to be research in itself, such positions are possible. Something that may
look shallow from the viewpoint of scholarly research, may be adequate for the researching
practitioner who seeks inspiration. Likewise, the sections chosen for study may deviate from
historical viewpoints. Artists and designers follow their intuition, likes and dislikes. They may
look for objects with expression, differences in formal solutions, deviations from a norm,
strange things, misfits, the unsuccessful that is telling – anything that gives ideas to their own
processes.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -8- Refsum 2003

HISTORICAL STUDY: IRISH HIGH CROSSES

Surveying cross and crucifix forms

The cross and the crucifix are main symbols of Christianity. Medieval pieces triggered my
interest in these forms, and wondering what they mean in our time, I started to work on them.
Parallel to sculpting, I began to collect information about my theme at random. My approach
was one of discovery, directed by intuition and personal likes and dislikes, with my curiosity
as guiding principle. I looked for all kinds of cross and crucifix forms, and found examples
everywhere, in books, magazines, church buildings and the street. After a while, I became
more systematic setting up overviews of cross and crucifix history and formal varieties
(Refsum 1991). It took years before I became aware that the theme of cross and crucifix is
extensively treated within art history, theology, and archaeology. At that time, however, I was
well acquainted with most form varieties, and knew their place in time and cultural context
(Refsum 2000).12 To me as a sculptor, the Irish high crosses became the most interesting part
in the entire cross and crucifix history. Although I work transparently with metal thread as
material, the massive stone crosses attracted me.

Topics of interest
I knew the Irish high crosses from literature, but to encounter them in situ was a revealing
experience.

Volume
No books or pictures had succeeded in communicating to me the outstanding three-
dimensionality in the early Irish monuments, and the capacity and sensitivity of Celtic
craftsmen of treating stone. It was amazing to be close to such volumes. Another
astonishment concerns surface treatment. In books, I had seen pictures of the fine ornament
on the old stele at Reask, county Kerry. But I was unaware that this ornament was laid upon a
curving surface! To see how the circular symbol is cut onto the uneven rounded surface was
impressing. This attitude towards decoration is completely different from the treatment in
later times. It represents a transition between the traditions from the Stone Age and the

12
At my doctoral dissertation, the art historian opponents that asked me for artist names, made me very much
aware that I had categorised and remembered crosses and crucifixes according to form, not to artist names or
place of production as the art historians do.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses -9- Refsum 2003

high crosses where the cuttings are arranged on planes. The Reask monument made me think
rotation.

Illustration 1 a Stele at Reask, context, side.

Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 10 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 1 b Stele at Reask, context front.

Illustration 1 c Stele at Reask, front.

Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 11 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 1 d Stele at Reask, side.

Context
Contexts are important from art and design perspectives: the landscape, the local context, and
the living context. The Ahenny, county Tipperary, crosses are documented excellently in
many books, but without their context. In reality, they are memorials in a small enclosed
graveyard in a wide landscape. The context made me think series and use. The use of globe
segments are forceful, the tops strange.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 12 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 2 a Ahenny crosses, landscape, and graveyard.

Illustration 2 b Ahenny crosses, in graveyard, with globe segments and tops.

Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 13 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 2 c Ahenny graveyard, old and new.

Section
Inspirational sources are those that attract you. During my travels in Ireland, the unknown
examples proved the most interesting to me. The cross in an old graveyard side by side with
an pre-Christian ogham13 in Kilmalkedar, county Kerry, is special: slim and broad, with a
square ornament in the cross centre. Its date or place does not matter, the form has interest
because it demonstrates the freedom and variety in the production of these monuments.

13
Pre-Christian memorial stone with the Celtic ogham letter incisions.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 14 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 3 a Kilmalkedar graveyard, context.

Illustration 3 b Kilmalkedar squared-centred cross.

Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 15 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 3 c Kilmalkedar cross and ogham.

Another peculiarly cross is found in Kilkieran, county Kilkenny. It is long and tall almost
without cross arms.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 16 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 4 Kilkieran tall cross

The cross from Kilfenora, county Clare, looks like an abstraction of a female body, and
represents another variety.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 17 - Refsum 2003

Illustration 5 Kilfenora female cross

None of these crosses are highlighted in the literature, but to me these exceptions to the norm
became the most inspiring. They encouraged me, providing freedom of form by showing that:
nothing is “right”.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 18 - Refsum 2003

Results

Illustration 6 a “Divided Crucifix”

Illustration 6 b “Divided Crucifix” 2003 in Sta. Maria Church, Gran in Norway.

Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 19 - Refsum 2003

The outcome of my historical studies may be summarized:

! the contexts inspired me to think function, use, and series;
! the exceptions to any norm, gave me creative freedom;
! the ornamented volume made me think rotation;
! the female form associated to gender;
! the centre abstractions initiated my abstraction of Christ in the crucifix.

In “Divided Crucifix” these inspirations may be seen integrated. The crucifix consists of a
series of five elements; the main form is an elongated volume without cross arms that
symbolises an abstracted man, which is rotated. The divine dimension is abstracted into a
globe in the centre.

Illustration 6 c “Divided Crucifix” drawn survey.

I am convinced that my historical studies have influenced my artistic work deeply and
positively.14 Artists’ and designers’ use historical material is not yet defined. It is a challenge

14
The extension of tradition is central in art reflecting Christian ideas. See Refsum 2000.
Historical Study: Irish High Crosses - 20 - Refsum 2003

to the fields of art and design to systematise and develop their approach to history, advocate
for their position, and find standards suited to their needs. Historians are welcome to help the
fields develop!

Artists and designers are professionals; their knowledge of confidence of artefacts are well
developed, and their looking may see other characteristics than professionals within the
disciplines of history are aware of. My guess is that artists and designers have the potential of
contributing to the understanding of the past. If taken into collaboration with historians
proper, the story about the past may be told anew.

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Abbreviation
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