International Forum on Artistic Research
17th Conference of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR)
Submission Number: 197
Submission ID: 252
Submission UUID: d27ca08f-2364-4f36-b9e3-31fad7c19d97

Created: Thu, 26 Feb 2026 - 23:18
Completed: Fri, 27 Feb 2026 - 01:22
Changed: Wed, 13 May 2026 - 08:12

Remote IP address: 220.253.145.113
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Current page: webform_confirmation
Given name Shelley
Surname Hannigan
Email shelley.hannigan@deakin.edu.au
I understand that by submitting this form, I consent to the use of my data for the purposes of the 2026 Forum on Artistic Research'. Yes
I agree to the terms of service. Yes
Title Making With What Remains: Art, Environment, and Generational Dialogue
Format Project presentation
Main language English
Abstract In recent years, there has been a significant rise in artists and arts educators working with found, discarded, and repurposed materials. The inventive ways these materials are sourced, collected, archived, transformed, curated, and presented carry strong ecological and socio-enviro meanings. Such practices respond to urgent cultural and ecological concerns, offering grounded portraits of place and material histories. Across Australia, artists including Carmel Wallace, Clare Milledge, Jessie French, and Narelle White have long engaged in upcycling and re-purposing practices that foreground environmental awareness within contemporary art.
This project presentation centres on the arts-practice research of Shelley Hannigan and Joseph Doggett-Williams. Shelley offers insight into sustainable arts practice in Australia through her own research and creative work, presented alongside that of Joseph, a young artist who has recently completed his Honours research. A significant dimension of this presentation is their intergenerational relationship as mother and son. Having grown up in a sustainability-focused household, Joseph’s practice has evolved in dialogue with Shelley’s longstanding commitment to environmentally conscious making.
Presented side by side, their work highlights two distinct yet interconnected approaches to sustainable arts practice, revealing how environmental values are interpreted, materialised, and reimagined across generations. Intergenerational learning—observing, reflecting on, and understanding each other’s creative methodologies—is positioned as central to this project. Their shared presentation advocates for collective movement toward environmentally responsible practices within the art world, emphasising collaboration, dialogue, and ongoing development in this space.
By situating their arts-practice research within broader Australian contexts of upcycling and material re-use, Shelley and Joseph address pressing socio-environmental issues.
Link to the Exposition https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-set?set=4210011
Image Catching Face_Joseph Doggett-Williams2025.jpg
Short biographies of the presenter(s)
  • Shelley Hannigan is a visual artist, researcher and educator based in Australia. In these three interrelated fields of practice, she works with communities and individuals to address societal, cultural and environmental change in and through the arts. Trained in painting in the late 1980s, her work has increasingly become concerned with socio-environmental issues evolving into sustainable, eco practices. She epicycles using discarded, found or op-shop sourced objects, collaborates with nature (silkworms) and incorporates some painting knowledge and textile processes into these happenings. Her work is featured in the book Assemblage: The Art of the Room (Thames and Hudson) and she has published her own work in over 40 publications.
  • Joseph Doggett-Williams is an artist and arts professional engaged in: art installation, exhibition curation, and event supervision. Based Melbourne, Australia, his art practice research explores materiality in the everyday, casting and re-assembling objects and forms. In 2025 his work explored sculptural assemblage to reimagine systems of function and desire by working with discarded materials and improvisational methods, creating half-functional, half-fictional machines built from found objects already around us. This built on from an earlier body of work "Lures". A lure is a trick, its attributes designed to attract prey but these lures involve incongruous pieces of plastic, chunks of faux fur, fishing floats and more.
Previous presentations or iterations of the research none
Additional information This presentation will be as a powerpoint presentation.
Spatial and technical requirements A room with digital projector facilities to present a powerpoint from my MAC laptop
Potential risks or ethical concerns There are no risks or ethical concerns.
Create a user account for SAR 2026 Yes
Create new user Shelley Hannigan