Believing that ideas about evolution and genetics are playing an increasing role in popular conceptions of who we are and what it means to be human, I sought ways to express this through my art. In particular I tried to articulate these notions through figurative sculpture. As the role of figurative sculpture in expressing current ideas about being human has declined in the West, I saw this as a challenge. It was the intent of my Masters program to reposition the sculpted body back within contemporary western cultural contexts. For an understanding of those contexts I relied heavily on my own culturally embedded experience and observations. I took as background my readings of evolutionary inspired literature and linked it with my interpretations of the genetic mythologies so prevalent in recent movies. The result was an image of contemporary humans as multifaceted, yet subservient to their genes. These genes appear to be easily manipulated and the product of technological intervention as much as, if not more than, inherited characteristics. As part of developing a sculptural form able to manifest this, I investigated some non-western traditions. I used field trips and residencies to research Buddhist and Hindu sculptures of the body and developed an interest in the spatial and conceptual relationships between those bodies. Through making figurative work in the studio, I came to realise the figures' inadequacy in expressing temporal relationships. As temporal change is a fundamental element of evolution and genetics, I needed to explore this element. The result was a number of series; groups of works that create their own context of relationships. Not all these groups use sculptures of the body but they evoke the notion of bodies, naturally or technologically hybridised, mutating, transforming, evolving and related to each other generationaly through time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/257349 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Cooper, Simon George, Art, College of Fine Arts, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Art |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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