Caring-With Dialogic Sculptures. A Post-Disciplinary Investigation into Forms of Attachment

In the discussed artistic research, a dialogic approach (Kester 2005) is adopted to address the everyday experience of place, and investigate the relevant social and political context in which this occurs. The approach is defined as caring with, as it impacts the people involved as a form of care (Held 2006). This is discussed in relation to historical precedents in site responsive, ecological and socially engaged art. Within this context, the project ‘Seeds of Attachment’ seeks to embed a newly developed non-verbal dialogic strategy in the form of a sculptural prop, informed by the Margaret Lowenfeld’s ‘Mosaic Test’ (1954). Through the activation of the prop during encounters with carers on the school-run route, it aimed at investigating how the attachment between carer and child (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969, 1998; Freud, A.,1967) and everyday routines contribute to place attachment (Jack, G. 2010; Seamon, D. 2013). The ‘mothering’ role, undervalued like other practices of care in society, is discussed in ecofeminist terms (Marconin Cima 2013, Buckingham 2005, 2019) and related manifestations in art. The implications of the adopted non-verbal dialogic artistic approach are considered in relation to ecological/environmental psychology (Gibson 1973), and how these might lead to future in(ter)disciplinary research. Keywords: artistic research; theory of attachment; place attachment; dialogic; ecology; ecofeminism; sculpture; art; psychology