Circles Within the Archive: Navigating the Paradoxes of Paul Cullen’s Practice

Abstract

The impetus for this PhD research arose after the death of my father in 2017—the artist Paul Cullen—an event that brought into focus the extensive archive of his work. My brother Ry and I inherited his collection, which includes artworks, drawings, workbooks, documentation, and materials amassed over a forty‐year career. This research sits at the intersection of critical archival studies, contemporary art practice, and practice‐based research, exploring the paradoxes and tensions in preserving and activating works that are ephemeral, spatial, site specific (or site related) and process oriented. I argue that traditional archival methods tend to overlook the dynamic, contextual nature of these works, losing their full implications and meanings. In response, I reconceptualise the archive as a dynamic cultural actor—a repository and a network of practices that engage with contemporary cultural contexts and transform the artwork into a field of possibilities. In doing so, I extend the notion of the archive to embrace non‐textual forms of knowledge, long‐chain inter-generational relations, and intangible cultural practices, thus challenging the conventional Western archival focus on fixed, tangible records.

My inquiry examines how archiving practices shape our understanding of Paul’s work, how his work might be archived and exhibited to resonate with and extend its conceptual foundations, and how a practice‐led process might activate the archive—fostering engagement, generating new trajectories, and promoting continuous emergence—while opening novel pathways for understanding his work and practice. To address these issues, I adopt a transdisciplinary methodology, assuming the roles of archivist-researcher, daughter-archivist, designer, editor, curator, and performer, and I develop a range of tools and modes of operation through practice‐led research. I also examine the impact of societal shifts, evolving technology, and changing methods for documenting and writing history, incorporating queer, feminist, and decolonial perspectives.

Throughout this exegesis, I oscillate between academic analysis and personal reflection—drawing on registers of creative nonfiction, including auto-theory—to engage with contemporary historiographical practices that redefine the historian’s role from chronicler to interpreter of signs and meanings, while foregrounding my relationship with Paul. My work culminates in a series of outputs—including publications, exhibitions, performances, written work, and a curated online repository of my father’s oeuvre—and in the performative staging of Paul’s conceptual proposal to install a selection of sculptures at the Musick Memorial Radio Station on Te Naupata Reserve / Musick Point in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. In this staging, I analyse the factors that influence site-specific installation artworks and their presentation over time. I contend that this PhD research is increasingly relevant given the growing demand for archives to be dynamic, inclusive and interactive, aligning with the shift towards more active, participatory cultural-heritage practices, while offering a transdisciplinary framework for engaging with art, culture and memory.