What are the traces of culture left behind by children? What emotional significance so these material traces hold for those who elect to use them as inspiration within their own creative practice? The creative investigation of this project focuses upon 'child-made' artefacts produced during play rituals within the domestic environment. Through painting practice my project seeks to respond to and record these artefacts. I am particularly interested in how these artefacts, as emblems of desire and symbols of loss are transformed into a mother's memorabilia. / In researching this area I have adopted an interdisciplinary approach, taking inspiration from play theory, anthropology, sociology, feminist cultural theory, literature and psychoanalysis. / My project follows a self-reflexive approach that utilises auto-ethnography and action research as methodologies. This auto-ethnographic and personal approach reveals a number of complex issues that unfold between author and subject, regarding ethics and the power relationships between participants. The blurring of boundaries that occurs between academic and auto-ethnographic research is also examined within the exegesis. As mother and artist I have conducted my research using observation and transcribing practices that cross over between anthropology and the field of contemporary visual arts practice. Utilising transcription techniques of painting and writing, I have recorded the ephemeral artefacts of childhood play as well as the circumstances and even conversations surrounding their evolution. Discussed thematically rather than chronologically, the artefacts I have produced also investigate the capacity for creative works to evoke ideas of temporality and absorption, through representing moments of reverie and preoccupation that may correlate directly with the act of painting. Supporting the exhibition of paintings and objects, the exegesis interweaves academic and poetic writing, transcriptions and journal notes in a playful ensemble of texts and images that reveal a complex layering of ideas, thoughts, relationships and questions. / My creative investigation into the ephemeral traces left behind by children examines the role of play from two perspectives, that of the child as creative individual and that of myself as mother and artist. My intention has been to celebrate the creative practice and life of the individual child. Observing and recording the young child at play, in parallel with my own visual arts and writing practice, I recognise the cross-pollination that occurs, and the generative potential of this relationship. While this exhibition and exegesis brings to conclusion one body of research this project has opened up great possibilities, generating questions and new ideas for future consideration. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267084 |
| Creators | Nieuwendijk, Helen. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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