My project applies the theoretical notion of the tactic, as defined by Michel de
Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Life, as a model for art practice.
Beginning with images of cut and patched sidewalks, I propose art-making as a
way to respond to the accidental and unconsidered aspects of the built world. I try a
number of different approaches to a tactical art-making, evaluating each attempt against
de Certeau’s descriptions of tactical and strategic operations. With each approach, I
encounter paradoxes and contradictions, and ultimately conclude that artwork can never
be solely tactical.
In spite of these difficulties, de Certeau’s ideas successfully facilitate the
development of a broad artistic practice. My final series of work proposes site-specificity
as a way to contain the strategic authority that artwork exerts, and begins to look to Gilles
Deleuze’s notion of the diagram as a way for my practice to move forward.

• http://leahhunter.com/trenthunter/