Van moi tot je : die verband tussen die ontwikkeling van die subjek en die kunsmaakproses

[摘要] The purpose of this study was to develop an academic approach towards myown work. The main objective was to determine my position as the subject inthe art-making process and, in doing so, to find a way in which to discuss myown work more readily. My underlying assumption was that identity is formedthrough a visual rather than a verbal process. I realised however that languageplayed an important role, especially since the metonymic and metaphoriccharacteristics of my art flow from language. The study therefore focuses onthe forming of identity, on the road to self-identity, but takes this factor intoconsideration.Lacan's theory on the mirror phase offered me the opportunity to investigate theinseparable relationship between subjectivity and visuality. His work on theintrinsic interaction between image and language, the conscious and theunconscious, being human as a 'lack of being and the endeavour towardscompletion in a broken world, culminates in the construction that languageoriginates from the moment at which the conscious makes an appearance atthe end of the mirror phase and that the unconscious is structured like alanguage.For Lacan the subject is not mono-dimensional, but occupies two positions, onein the imaginary, known as the moi, and the other in the symbolic, known as theje. Based on this view, Lacan demonstrates that the symbols artists use shouldnot only be understood as icons, but should be seen as signifiers in which thesubject comes to the fore.What I have drawn from the theoretical part of my research is the fact that thecomposition of factors that determine the meeting of subjects in the viewingprocess are extremely complex. The core of the gaze is however that thegazing subject always experiences something of itself in the gaze. This insightnot 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 writingprocess was most liberating.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University