Centre for Ideas - Theses

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Subject: skin × Type: Masters Research thesis ×

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    Body of water
    Edwards, Katherine Campbell ( 2015)
    Through a series of underwater video sequences, my exhibition Body of Water marked the culmination of my Masters research findings investigating the physical animation of the female body in the element of water. Using video and video stills to explore the process of thought and perception, the images trace the concept of the psyche moving between unconscious and conscious realms. The materiality of an aquatic dimension provides a suspended three-dimensional “canvas”, and womb-like space within which to construct the artworks. The accompanying written paper encompasses my research into philosophical and psychoanalytical texts, as well as feminist theory and video art, to further articulate the materials and methods used in my studio practice (and final exhibition). In the underwater filming process what becomes apparent is the potential for water to trigger both sensory and psychological notions, assisted by a dream-like sequence of the female’s journey. Dream theory is introduced as a way of understanding the unconscious process as an art practice, and the project sets out to locate its manifestation within psychosomatic experience. My art process echoes the process of dreams vaporizing from the unconscious as the camera’s blind operation first captures the imagery without judgment, before the images are later edited, layered and juxtaposed to create the work. The underwater swimmer gives further expression to symbolizing “thresholds” of outer and inner phenomenological experience. The term a “psychical interior” is used frequently to refer to metaphysical dimensions of thinking about the swimmer in water as a metaphor for the process of “unconscious” thought. Concepts derived from psychoanalytical research including a “psychical envelope” and “skin-ego”, are juxtaposed within my phenomenological descriptions of water’s materiality. The skin-ego is a concept derived from skin’s dual sensory function, that of an outer sponge and an inner perceptual matrix. The female body immersed in water has been fashioned to enable a dialogue about metaphors of feminine space and its subjectivity. I have intentionally de-identified elements of the female body to instead focus on phenomenological frameworks including the body as a “container”, and tension between the environments of skin and water in defining the self. Bringing the viewer’s awareness closer to the “lived body” experience, my project aims to invite slowness from the visitor when entering the intimacy of the womb-like projection space. The immersive, dark exhibition space enables one to encounter the dream-like nature of the underwater sequences. Water as a moving element (captured by the camera) offers a spatio-temporal dimension of time literally dissolving before the viewer. Water imagery is potent with symbolic associations to the spiritual and maternal and has the potential to arouse in the viewer anything from a reflective reverie to a deep psychological introspection.