Browsing by Author "Siopis, Penny"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Absent Presence: an exploration of memory and family through printmaking
    (2022) Hambsch, Oliver; Inggs, Stephen; Siopis, Penny
    Visual and linguistic metaphors help to conceptualise memory by reducing its physiological and philosophical complexities to a degree that allows its processes to be easily understood. Two commonly used metaphors are ‘memory as an imprint' and ‘memory as a photograph'. However, these metaphors ignore vital aspects of memory, such as its fluidity, the interplay between remembering and forgetting, and the role of imagination. They can thus be considered misleading and problematic. Of particular interest is the ‘memory-as-imprint' analogy and how engagement with the visual language of printmaking can modify it to create a more comprehensive depiction that accounts for the physiological processes of individual memory and the retention and transmission of collective, familial memory. Through my practical work, I seek to address these concerns through both traditional and experimental printmaking techniques, which I reflect on and analyse through the theoretical framework of printmaking. I use photographs sourced from my family archive as references, focusing in particular on those from the German post-war period, and remediate them into various print mediums, each addressing particular facets of memory that I consider important. My work is intended to serve as a reflection on what memory is and how it is experienced, the theoretical aspects of printmaking and my own relationship with my family memory. I argue that through a conceptual engagement with printmaking, print can be used as a metaphorical device that extends beyond the simple ‘memory-as-imprint' analogy.
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    An irreal realm: painting as a means of reflecting on oneirism
    (2013) Simons, Bridget Anne; Siopis, Penny
    My interest in oneirism grew out of my search for a concept that would encapsulate my concerns in painting at the start of this project, namely the formal values I exploited, the quotidian subject matter I favoured, and the sense of contemplation I wished to convey. The correlations I perceived between my concerns and oneirism became more emphatic as my research progressed. The more I read about oneirism, the more I became aware of how the concept could be translated into painted form, a process which in turn inspired my practice. This document serves as a means to reflect on something of this complementary process. Within this framework, my discussion of theories related to oneirism is presented to amplify my painting practice. As a reflection on oneirism, the body of work submitted for my MFA comprised paintings in ink and oil. Many pieces were based on snapshots of views and objects in my surroundings. I often cropped the photographs to focus on a single object or a minor detail of a view. My approach was figurative, although it verged on abstraction depending on the source imagery I selected. I used a close-value palette that was dominated by chromatic greys. The structure of my paintings is quite simple in formal terms and my work is generally small in scale. I used these features and selected my subject matter to parallel theories about the oneiric zone that I discovered in my research. In terms of my aims in this project, and the media and approach I used in my practice, the figurative paintings of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) and contemporary Belgian painter Luc Tuymans (b. 1958) were most compelling. I responded to their muted palettes and, for me, their work shares a contemplative quality, despite differences in subject matter and approach. However, I was also intrigued by certain artists who used media other than paint to produce work that related to my concerns. I thus touch on the work of some of these artists, in addition to Tuymans and Morandi.
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    M'bona The Black Jesus of Malawi
    (2018) Chikabadwa, Eva; Alexander, Jane; Siopis, Penny
    This document is an explicatory essay for a body of artworks which are in the form of paintings and sculptures that tell the story of M'bona, the Black Jesus of Malawi. M'bona is a religious icon amongst the Man'ganja clan of Southern Malawi. He is believed to be a rain maker, a god and a prophet. Both the document and the artworks consider colonial and missionary interpretation and representation of M'bona and aspects of African religious practices. My focus on M'bona challenges representations of the faith by Catholic missionary anthropologist, Matthew Schoffeleers. The argument that I present is mainly developed from Schoffeleers' publications and academic documents, and from my field research at Khulubvi thicket in the Nsanje District of Malawi, which is the headquarters of the M'bona religion. The artwork installation expresses my response to the postulation made by Schoffeleers that the M'bona religion owes its genesis to an appropriation of Christian beliefs. The paintings, in particular, proffer my conceptual contest with Schoffeleers' suppositions, while the sculptures play the role of fortifying my alternative view point as one of the vital functions of art in the conservation of cultural heritage.
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    Meeting and merging: painting animal/human encounters with medicine
    (2014) Voysey, Jo; Siopis, Penny; MacKenny, Virginia
    My work focuses on the expressive potential of medicinal remedies as a medium for painting. My exploration is concentrated on aspects of the human relationship to animals in captivity and stems from a relationship I had with a caged bear when I was living in Georgia, Eastern Europe in 2011. The story of my encounter with the bear is important in this respect and I begin my text with that narrative, written in the third person so that the story has a wider resonance. My time with the bear affected me profoundly and prompted me to think more deeply about human relationships with animals and how they are expressed in contemporary art.
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    Not Making Big Rocks Small: Decolonising and Queering the Archive through Personal Narrative in the Film Essay
    (2018) Heilig, Megan-Leigh; Siopis, Penny; Josephy, Svea
    For my MFA, I aimed to reflect on my personal experiences and family history through the medium of a film essay and installation. By showing it in a public space, I hope to start a conversation about how white South Africans can reimagine their role within the decolonisation project as one that is active, present and uncomfortable.
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    Out-of-Place
    (2013) Gauntlett, Alice; Inggs, Stephen; Siopis, Penny
    This series of photographs were the initial process works for my project. I began photographing my body, predominately my legs, in personal spaces. These spaces included my family home and my studio and depicted performances of my interaction with these spaces and objects and elements from the home. This series of process works introduced to me to the idea of working within the home and photographing my performances. They differ from the main body of work, which was photographed in my mother's new home - the location that I chose for my photographs and performances, in that they were not remediated into collage works.
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    The paradox of uncertainty
    (2016) Shaer, Nicole; Siopis, Penny; MacKenny, Virginia
    This work represents my engagement with uncertainty, as I have defined and contained it. As an artist, my research strategy has been to work with uncertainty in a felt sense, using my hands as a way to access a different sort of thinking. To this end, I have allowed, created, sustained and magnified the presence of uncertainty in my studio, as a focused, experiential study within the practice of making art. Uncertainty might be understood in many ways, so I will begin with the common definition as that which is ‘not able to be relied on; not known or definite’ (OED, 2016). Psychology professor Michael Smithson characterises the Western perception of uncertainty as a predominantly negative anticipation of what cannot be known (Bammer and Smithson, 2008: 18).Such a perception of uncertainty as a threat, may encourage the use of control as a means to contain the unknown. Smithson’s description reflects the prevailing attitude of my upbringing and this project represents the exploration of a different paradigm. The Paradox of Uncertainty alludes to the coexistence of two apparently opposing views of uncertainty, which I have sought to integrate through my art practice. My interest in uncertainty originates in years of effort to overcome anxiety, which I understand as the physiological manifestation of a fearful relationship with uncertainty that results in a habitual psychological struggle to out-plan the future. In contrast with the prevailing medical conception of anxiety as a form of mentalillness, philosopher Martin Heidegger considers anxiety to be an ‘irreducible, existential state of being[...] aris[ing] from the self-reflexive awareness of our own“potentiality-for-being”’ (Gordon, 2013: 106). The existential psychologist, Rollo May (1977: 38) offers a functional link between uncertainty and anxiety, noting that ‘whenever possibility is visualised by an individual, anxiety is potentially present in the same experience.’ Developing May’s concept of anxiety as a normal part of lived experience, psychologist Kerry Gordon (2013: 107) expands on the relationship between anxiety and creativity, saying: Creativity, authenticity, uncertainty, anxiety—these cannot be separated. To live a creative existence means to live with uncertainty. To live an authentic existence means to live with anxiety.