The space in-between : psychoanalysis and the imaginary realm of art

[摘要] This investigation uses an object relations psychoanalytic framework to exploreways that art embodies both social and personal meaning. The relationshipbetween the non- verbal experience of art and the pre-verbal realm of infancy isexplored and linked to bodily, perceptual and inner forms of non-discursiveknowledge which are of value for the subject. The study investigates how this innerexperience is related through art to language and representation as aspects ofexternal experience.The study argues that these two dimensions, the inner/bodily and theouter/linguistic, are held together in the art object which, as metaphor, is aconjoined structure that embodies the maternal and paternal realms in paradoxicaland dynamic interplay. The art object, which elicits imaginary and phantasiedresponses from the viewer, serves both the self (through presentational symbols)and social needs (through representational symbols), thus allowing the creationand communication of new meanings.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University