A wounded surface : dissolving the human form

Palte, Lauren

A wounded surface : dissolving the human form

Master Thesis

2011

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Michaelis School of Fine Art

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This text offers an exploration into painting and metaphysical states of being and provides a framework for the reception of my body of work submitted for an MFA degree. In this project I am concerned with the translation of personal experiences to a canvas marked with oil paint. The experiences engage memories and stories mined from my family photographs, while also located in an experience of illness in my own body. Rather than directly illustrate these events, I have engaged with associated emotional states, such as feelings of loss, fear and uncertainty. My concerns are expressed either through fragmented or dismembered painted figures, or are engaged through the medium's materiality, explored and evoked through the visual and visceral qualities of a painted surface. An important part of my reading on carefully posed groups in formal family photographs is Marianne Hirsch's Family Frames: Photography. Narrative and Post memory (1997). Gathered at symbolic rites of passage, the family photograph offers ideal images of certitude, of familial togetherness and of happiness. In this body of work I reject the appearance of stability and search my family photographs for traces of ambivalent and unsettled bodily or emotional experiences.

Description

Includes abstract.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-110).

Keywords

Fine Arts

Reference:

Collections

Masters

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