In My Flesh : Fabricating the Bulimic Body
- Authors: Hodgson, Ashley
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Bulimia , Human body -- Social aspects , Human figure in art , Diseases in art , Art therapy
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177317 , vital:42809
- Description: My MFA exhibition In My Flesh, explores my own personal experience of an eating disorder: bulimia nervosa, through the medium of sculpture and installation. Situated in the Fine Art Sculpture and Painting building on Rhodes University campus, this practical submission takes the form of a multi-sensory installation depicting the fleshy interior of a bulimic body. The sculptural works that make up the installation resemble enlarged bodily forms and cavities, namely the mouth; the oesophagus, the stomach; the intestines; and the flesh. These anatomical forms are made from fabric which has been melted, manipulated, and stained using food and other synthetic dyes. The arrangement of the sculptural components (parts of the body affected by bulimia) does not mirror the human body exactly, and their intentionally disordered placement creates a feeling of dis-ease and disturbance for the participant experiencing the installation. This mini-thesis, In My Flesh: Fabricating the Bulimic Body, unpacks the visual, tactile and audio elements of this practice as research submission as they relate to my interest in bodily boundaries, corporeal traces and material extensions. I look at these themes as they translate into installation, and discuss the way in which bulimia is experienced, theorised and represented. I position my work in relation to the concept of the abject as proposed by Julia Kristeva, and visually analyse artworks by Mona Hatoum, Heidi Bucher and Ernesto Neto who make use of immersive installation strategies that resonate with my own practice. This supporting document considers the three conceptual elements informing my installation: embodiment, space, and materiality. In the first chapter of this document: Embodying the Bulimic Body, I address bulimia as less open to visual interpretations than other eating disorders because of its secretive and hidden nature. I go on to frame the illness in relation to theories around bodily boundaries and abjection and argue that bulimia epitomises abjection. In Chapter Two: Architecture of the Bulimic Body I engage with the idea of architectural structures as having anatomic features. I interrogate how the body moves through space, leaving traces of itself behind. Chapter Three: Fabricating the Bulimic Body concentrates on the main medium used in In My Flesh: fabric. In my discussion of this material, I unpack its metaphoric and symbolic qualities, as well as its personal resonance with my own lived experience. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04
"I've always known this place, familiar as a room in our house" : engaging with memory, loss and nostalgia through sculpture
- Authors: Reed, Kesayne
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Memory in art , Loss (Psychology) in art , Nostalgia in art , Sculpture -- Themes, motives , Art therapy , Sculpture -- Exhibitions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2513 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020022
- Description: My exhibition draws on Andreas Huyssen's notion of memory sculpture to articulate my own sense of loss and trauma, due to the divorce of my parents. Within my work I explore the effects that divorce had on me and how it has disturbed my normative understanding of home and family. I have created scenarios alluding to the family home that I have manipulated in order to convey a sense of nostalgia and loss. By growing salt crystals over found objects and/or cladding them in salt, I attempt to suggest the dual motifs of preservation (a nostalgic clinging to the past) and destruction (due to the salt’s corrosive properties). In this way, the salt-crusted objects serve as a metaphor for a memory that has become stagnant, and is both destructive and regressive. The objects encapsulate the mind’s coping methods to loss. In my mini thesis, I discuss characteristics of memory sculpture as a response to trauma, drawing on Sigmund Freud's differentiation between mourning and melancholia. I also unpack how objects and traces (such as photographs) may act as nostalgic triggers, inducing a state of melancholic attachment to an idealised past. I address these concerns in relation to selected works by Doris Salcedo and Bridget Baker, and also situate them in relation to my own art practice.
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- Date Issued: 2015
The potential of claywork to facilitate the integration of the self in psychotherapy with an adult survivor of childhood trauma: a Jungian perspective
- Authors: Smuts, Tanja
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: Jung, C G (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961 , Art therapy , Psychotherapy , Child psychotherapy , Adult child abuse victims -- Rehabilitation , Self , Modeling -- Therapeutic use
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3062 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002571 , Jung, C G (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961 , Art therapy , Psychotherapy , Child psychotherapy , Adult child abuse victims -- Rehabilitation , Self , Modeling -- Therapeutic use
- Description: The aim of this thesis was to explore the experience of “self” within the clinical context of adult survivors of childhood trauma. Childhood trauma in this study referred to a range of childhood experiences of emotional and physical assault, including encounters with various kinds of abuse and neglect. The focus was on the experience of a sense of disintegration and dislocation, associated to aspects of self being in conflict. This was explored from theoretical perspectives of Jungian analytic psychology, as well as art therapy.Answers were sought to the questions of how claywork, as a form of art therapy, may facilitate the integration of the self and contribute to the development of a healing dialogue with feared and hated aspects of self. Grounded in Jungian theory, integration of the self was conceptualised as a movement towards “differentiating wholeness”. The study took the form of a phenomenological-hermeneutic case study. One participant’s experience of making and discussing a clay sculpture in a therapeutic setting according to Edwards’ method, was analysed thematically. It was concluded that the potential of claywork in therapy to facilitate the integration of the self is related to three aspects. Firstly, claywork in therapy may promote a concrete personification of feared and hated aspects of self, which may enable the maker to view these aspects from a distance, and learn to understand them in a new way. Secondly, claywork in therapy may facilitate the safe ‘unearthing’ of repressed feelings as well as hidden aspects of the personality. Thirdly, claywork’s potential to mediate symbolic functioning was shown to be an important aspect of the integration process. These findings confirmed and extended existing theory regarding the usefulness of claywork in psychotherapy with adult survivors of childhood trauma. Brief recommendations for future research were provided.
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- Date Issued: 2005
Claywork within the holographic paradigm: a transpersonal perspective on art therapy
- Authors: Diers, Belinda Gail
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Art therapy , Transpersonal psychology , Art and holography
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2962 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002471 , Art therapy , Transpersonal psychology , Art and holography
- Description: This thesis is grounded in the theoretical discourses of art therapy and transpersonal psychology. The focus is on a single session of claywork, where a sculpture was made and discussed, leading to an understanding of some of the sculptor's central psychological issues. The overall aim of the research was to examine different hermeneutic perspectives on art therapy with clay sculpture in terms of how well they open up and do justice to the experience of the sculptor and the nature of the overall process. Within this there are two particular goals: Firstly, to examine the extent to which the holographic paradigm in comparison to other perspectives, allows a deeper access to, and deeper understanding of, transpersonal themes and processes; and secondly, to examine the extent to which processes within claywork can be understood as ritual activities. The research was a phenomenological-hermeneutic case study. The session was reduced to a narrative synopsis, and then a hermeneutically grounded thematic analysis was carried out using the theory of Transpersonal Feminism (Knight, 1997) and Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy (young, 1990, 1994). The principal conclusions reached were that the holographic paradigm does add to our understanding of the experiences (personal and transpersonal) of the claywork, often beyond the scope of other art therapy perspectives. The image of the shaman is used as a metaphor for understanding the process of healing described within the holographic paradigm. Within the healing process, ritual plays an important role in the meaningful therapeutic activity of art therapy. The claywork expresses that the transpersonal struggle with archetypal forces within the collective unconscious is reflected on a personal level through individual conflicts and dilemmas within the personal unconscious. Indeed, these difficulties are viewed on both levels as 'stepping stones' on the path of spiritual development described by Engler (1984) and Welwood (1986).
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- Date Issued: 1999
Dreamwork and imaginal healing: the incorporation of artwork in a systematized method of group dreamwork
- Authors: Euvrard, Gwenda Joan
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Dreams -- Therapeutic use , Art therapy , Jungian psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2972 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002481 , Dreams -- Therapeutic use , Art therapy , Jungian psychology
- Description: This exploratory study investigated the expansion of an established systematized group dreamwork method (Shuttleworth-Jordan, 1995) to incorporate artwork. The rationale for the addition of artwork was situated firstly, in a poetic Jungian understanding of the image as a holistic "place" of gnosis or transformative healing and, secondly, in an argument that in order to carry the gnostic potential of the image into the lived world, a dreamwork method should involve all four styles of consciousness (thinking, intuition, sensation and feeling). It was considered that the verbal interpretive Shuttleworth-Jordan method would be enhanced by the incorporation of a visual artwork process in order more fully to open the potential of the method for incorporating the nonverbal intuitive, sensation and feeling styles of consciousness. In order to compare the established method (dreamwork Without Art) and the proposed method (dreamwork With Art), two dreamwork workshops were conducted in which all participants experienced all four conditions of the study: Dream Presenter Without Art, Dream Presenter With Art, Group Member Without Art, Group Member With Art. Two levels of assessment were utilized: a quantitative analysis (involving rating scales completed after each dreamwork session), supported by a qualitative analysis (involving written questionnaires completed at the end of the workshops and follow-up interviews conducted a week after completion of the workshops). The results suggested that the incorporation of artwork in the Shuttleworth-Jordan (1995) group dreamwork method enhanced the established method in that a consistent trend of increased involvement in the dreamwork process and increased dreamwork effectiveness was reflected, while no deleterious effects were noted which might detract from the effectiveness of the existing model which had been established in previous research studies. Finally, a refined step-by-step group dreamwork method incorporating artwork was proposed, which included qualitative feedback from the present study.
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- Date Issued: 1999
Art as an expression of the unconscious psyche
- Authors: Weiner, Elana
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Art -- Psychology , Art and mental illness , Art therapy , Subconsciousness
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3119 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004903 , Art -- Psychology , Art and mental illness , Art therapy , Subconsciousness
- Description: This study aimed to investigate the use of expressive art as a manifestation of the unconscious psyche and as an indication of underlying personality dynamics. Its use as a significant medium for therapeutic encounter and exploration was investigated by analysing the art produced by four psychiatric in-patients during their participation in an eight-week art therapy programme. Each patient's art series was qualitatively and thematically interpreted with a focus upon the meaning of significant recurring images and motifs. The results of this study indicate that the particularity of each patient's graphic imagery enabled the lived experience of their struggles and preoccupations to emerge as uniquely different. Through their art productions they revealed the nature of their inner worlds and the power of their thoughts, feelings and experiences.
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- Date Issued: 1988