AMANDA ROBINS
What Lies Beneath
My current thesis topic is painting and drawing as a meditative process/practice and as part of my research I have been investigating the relationship of artists to the process of making.
I have been looking at how and why artists invest their time and their bodies in the production of art. The experience of making often allows the artist to materialise their internal world - to define and to lose themselves in the safety of their own creation. They can become immersed in the process in a productive and revitalising way. The process itself can become addictive.
The attitudes and modes of practice I have been investigating emphasise the physical presence of the artwork. They facilitate a triangular relationship between the artist, the artwork and the spectator in a way that resonates beyond the limitations of verbalised knowledge. In the current aesthetic of the quick fix, the meditative approach to art making makes demands on the artist and, importantly, the viewer. Artwork produced in this way can allow us access to the unknown thought 1 in a way that is not possible through the quick fix image.
I believe artists are uniquely equipped to theorise their own practice from an experiential viewpoint. I have consulted the words of contemporary artists in published interviews, diaries and notebooks. I have been able to isolate qualities in the work of some artists which resonated and kept recurring, and have begun to create a picture of the conditions under which a meditative practice might be expected to emerge began to crystallise. In my paper I will describe these qualities and give relevant examples of artists and artworks.
1. Bollas, Christopher 1987 The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known Free Association Books
Amanda Robins.
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