Abstract
Poetic imagination, the importance of reverie and thinking beyond the known world, underpins the approach to this thesis. The desire to find a visual language founded on memoirs and the phenomena of the imagination, for me, leads to the notion of childhood. Childhood is a cultural construct, a late eighteenth century invention, revealing more about adult longings than the social conditions of the child. Home, the first world of the child, is explored as a site of security and discomfort through the architectural uncanny.Fairy tales, the literary staple for many children, are inherent in this body of work. Is the forest a place of life threatening danger or is it a wilderness to nourish the soul? Is the wolf a predator upon the innocent young feminine or is it the signifier of sexual promiscuity? The aura of foreboding and fear that surrounds fairy tales is examined for function and exploited for effect. The abject, all that we find repulsive and despicable, is toyed with to reverse convention and open up a casket of horrors.
The unsettling and the strange are the predecessors to the making that occur in the studio. Soft sculptures, video footage, toothpick constructions, works on paper and digital photography are the mediums employed to explore the imaginary realm. A survey of curatorial themes addresses questions about the relevance of fantasy and fiction in the current political climate.
| Date of Award | Feb 2007 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Anne Ooms (Supervisor) & Sylvia Kleinert (Supervisor) |