Abstract/Summary

This practice-led research presupposes my autobiographical living experience in London, England, focusing on the drawing project [Li:ving] London (2016-2018). My research question revolves around how the art project recreates the value of everyday life and individuals’ subjectivity in a post-capitalist society. The significance of this research is to overcome human alienation, as a worker and an artist, and reveal the individual’s independent existence and experience. I have selected the sandwich franchise Pret A Manger and my commuting route in London as the primary subject matter. Borrowing Michel Foucault’s spatial concept of Heterotopia, I considered the franchise cafe and my commuting route as heterotopia. Based on my subjective experience as a manual worker, the artistic practice of walking and daily drawing is deployed as the main methodologies. Through repetitive walking and drawing, the most basic artistic labour, I found subtle variations in urban spaces. As time went on, the repetitive itinerary allowed for the drawing images to be more abstract and unrealistic. Social media and five exhibitions are followed by the art practice as the way of presentation methods. I aim to independently reconstruct a new subjective identity and present the drawings and exhibitions along with social media as research outcomes, which show the endeavour to answer this question. The outcomes of this research are presented in two parts, the thesis text and the documentation of the work and exhibitions.