Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The purpose of this study was to develop an academic approach towards my
own work. The main objective was to determine my position as the subject in
the art-making process and, in doing so, to find a way in which to discuss my
own work more readily. My underlying assumption was that identity is formed
through a visual rather than a verbal process. I realised however that language
played an important role, especially since the metonymic and metaphoric
characteristics of my art flow from language. The study therefore focuses on
the forming of identity, on the road to self-identity, but takes this factor into
consideration.
Lacan’s theory on the mirror phase offered me the opportunity to investigate the
inseparable relationship between subjectivity and visuality. His work on the
intrinsic interaction between image and language, the conscious and the
unconscious, being human as a “lack of being” and the endeavour towards
completion in a broken world, culminates in the construction that language
originates from the moment at which the conscious makes an appearance at
the end of the mirror phase and that the unconscious is structured like a
language.
For Lacan the subject is not mono-dimensional, but occupies two positions, one
in the imaginary, known as the moi, and the other in the symbolic, known as the
je. Based on this view, Lacan demonstrates that the symbols artists use should
not only be understood as icons, but should be seen as signifiers in which the
subject comes to the fore.
What I have drawn from the theoretical part of my research is the fact that the
composition of factors that determine the meeting of subjects in the viewing
process are extremely complex. The core of the gaze is however that the
gazing subject always experiences something of itself in the gaze. This insight
not only helped me to describe some of the work of my favourite artists better,
but to identify myself in my work.
The experience of unravelling and restructuring my thoughts in the writing
process was most liberating.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1840 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Roux, Susan Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Gunther, Elizabeth, Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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