Dr Eirini Boukla

Profile

I am an artist, researcher and a Lecturer in Art Practice in the School of Design. My background is in Fine Art for Design with a focus on drawing. I completed my PhD in FAHACS at the University of Leeds in 2013 with the thesis Ichnographia: Arrogation and Alteration, which explores tracing and the traced as a creative process in drawing and investigates its role beyond its traditional preparatory function. I worked as an Associate Lecturer in Drawing in FAHACS from 2010 to 2014 before taking up my current position in the School of Design in 2014.

I hold an MA in Drawing from Camberwell College of Arts, UAL (2006), where my thesis Drawing as a Sculptural Activity examines drawing as a spatial and material practice. Alongside my art practice I develop, organise and curate art projects and residencies across the UK and Europe. My work is supported through research funding from the AHRC, Arts Council England, the AHRB and private sector initiatives and is exhibited internationally in galleries, museums, art festivals and public art projects.

Further information about my work, visit my website.

Research interests

My work explores drawing as a palimpsestic mode of practice. I approach drawing as a conceptual and material structure through which ideas, processes and forms are continually investigated and reconfigured across fields. Within this framework, drawing operates as a generative system that moves between materials and disciplines, where works emerge through ongoing processes of testing and reworking.

A central concern in my work is the relationship between material and imagination. This connection brings together intention and intuition, invention and execution in ways that mutually influence one another. The work develops through an open-ended process in which actions respond to earlier stages of the work, allowing each stage of making to remain active within the next. In this sense, the practice unfolds palimpsestically: ideas and material operations accumulate over time, producing layered relations among drawing, space, objects and other forms.

My research is studio-centred and operates through practice with a laboratory-like attitude toward process. Engagement with materials in my immediate environment activates a space between intention and decision, forming a dialogue between thinking and making as it unfolds in the studio. This informality is central to my methods, allowing the work to develop through experimentation, responsiveness and continuous negotiation with material processes. Through this approach, drawing becomes a multidisciplinary mode of inquiry grounded in inscription, tracing and material negotiation.

Qualifications

• 2013. PhD Fine Art. University of Leeds.
• 2006. MA Drawing. Camberwell College of ArtS, University Arts London.
• 2005. BA (Hons) Fine Art for Design. Batley School of Art & Design. Huddersfield University.

Professional memberships

• SAR (Society for Artistic Research)

Student education

I teach Art and Design across all levels at the School of Design, with a focus on both theory and practice. I supervise undergraduate dissertations, MA projects, and PhD research, supporting students in developing practice based and interdisciplinary inquiries. My supervisory expertise includes subjects within the expanded field of drawing, materiality, and experimental animation, exploring their intersections across art and design contexts.

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ebtisam Alotaibi
• Hannah Sabapathy
• Linnan Zhang
• Wei Wang