School of Art - Theses

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Subject: photography × Start date: 2010 × End date: 2018 × Author: FRIEDLANDER, MARK ×

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    Constructing absence: perceptual destablisation and language
    FRIEDLANDER, MARK ( 2011)
    This research began by looking into the phenomenon of hallways and their metaphorical impact, a motif that has long been central to my practice. During my enquiry I noticed that I wanted to gain specific understanding of what was most elusive, that is ‘the constant flickering of presence and absence’ of meaning within the work I was making. This search was provoked by what I was encountering as a particular view of language centered on Jacques Lacan’s concept of the ‘mirror phase’, Jacques Derrida’s use of 'différance' and ‘trace’, Jean Baudrillard’s concept of ‘seduction’ and lastly, Zen Buddhism. I became aware that absence is never absence, and that in fact absence is a specific kind of presence. This then became the juggernaut of my research. The now articulated subject of “the presence of absence” was explored in spiritual spaces, the concept of ‘the other’ and an enquiry into language itself. Along the way, a number of other concerns presented as the nature of the work changed and the research influenced the evolution of the work made. The concept of ‘ma’ influenced the intention of the hallways, to take the viewer on a journey without destination. In addition, the viewer's body became an active force within the work in a similar way to the religious act of genuflection before a deity. Self-awareness was created with reference to Michel Foucault’s reading of the panopticon. To begin with, the work was an entirely interior space, impenetrable behind a screen. Then it became a cohesive whole within the gallery space and could be experienced in the round. Finally, it underwent a radical change from distinct cohesive entity to a set of relational discrete elements that took their reference from symbols of art and architecture. Photographic documentation of the work, as part of the work itself, became an indexed autonomous object that questioned the relationship of subject and object.