I consider the many objects and actions of my practice as one work which deals with art’s ontology, or with the question, ‘what is art?’ The first stage of my practice, my Decorative Painting Project (1988 – 2000) considered the relation of decoration to art. Here, by painting decorative motifs as the subject of my work while considering the role that paintings (and artworks more generally) play as decoration, I hoped to question the boundaries of art as a concept, placing something which is not art (decoration) within the context and institutions of ‘art’. The second stage was my Relational practice (2000 – 2006), wherein I ran a gallery in my house, edited, published and distributed an art magazine, and organised an artist’s group for women. My undertaking of these activities considered artist’s actions, lives, networks and events as art, over their producing and exhibiting objects.

The final stage is my End of Art project (2012 – ). While this represents my return to an object-based or studio practice, it is accompanied by theoretical and philosophical considerations of art, wherein I more explicitly question art’s ontology via discourse. My End of Art project allows for an opening of the objects of my practice to a variety of media, which has so far included painting, video, performance, sound art, sculptural and fibre- based works. The overarching title of The End of Art embraces a negative reading of the art of the current moment via Hegel’s initial theorisation of art as having ended, alongside Arthur Danto’s considerations of modern art as the embodiment of, or a dealing with, the ‘end of art’. My continuing artistic production and activities make a positive statement concerning art’s seeming continuation despite its perceived end. By embodying both the negative and the positive situation within my practice, I hope to embody the state of art in the current moment, or contemporary art.

Pulie is a Sydney-based artist. Since 1988 she has conducted her practice in relation to art’s ontology or definition, firstly with painting as medium and more recently opening to a variety of media including a theoretically based, discursive practice.

Recent solo exhibitions include #117 (Survey) at UNSW Galleries and New Old Paintings at Sarah CottierThe National 2017 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Unfinished Business at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne,and Bauhaus Now!
at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne. Pulie is a lecturer at the National Art School and is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.