The
observational artist – An investigation into the mother-daughter relationship.
Contents
Chapter 1 – Finding the source, Pages 3-6
Chapter 2 – Being the observer, Pages 7-10
Chapter 3 – Fulfilling desires, Pages 11-13
Chapter 4 – Identifying the self as subject,
Pages 14 -15
Chapter 5 – Where this lies in art,
psychoanalysis, feminism and philosophy, Pages16 – 21
References-Pages 22-24
Appendix 1 –
Pages 25 -26
Appendix 2 –
Pages 27 - 31
Chapter
1- Finding the source
The
initial investigation and purpose of the special project is to test
philosophical notions of Freud and Lacan – the mirror stage, Winnicott’s
concept of ‘Good Enough’ mothering and Luce Irigaray’s investigation of Mother
– daughter relationships from a feminist’s point of view, ranging from the
artist’s influences on these notions through the work of Mary Kelly’s
Post-Partum ‘Document’ and the work of contemporary photographer Maureen
Douglas-Green.
Using
these philosophers, feminists and artists I set out to explore their ideas
through my own practice - by drawing upon the relationship with my own daughter
and by using my own personal experience as a daughter. I propose to do this by
removing myself from the role of mother and carrying out observations as an
artist. I am not trying to predict outcomes but to work from what I observe as
a basis to develop my practice.
I
felt that it was most relevant to draw upon these philosophical bodies of work,
to analyse the way in which my daughter grows and develops, through the process
of her weaning from breast to solids, breast to bottle and breast to cup. By
documenting this through the means of observational sessions, I will then be
able to use this information to compare it to the research of philosophical
notions, feminist arguments and artists’ ideas. Lastly, I will create a series
of visual pieces, which will show the interrelation between these ideas.
I
will develop this collection into a coherent transcription of data, which will
connect to that of the analytical philosophical notions, feminist arguments and
artists’ notions. There will also be associated diagrams through out each
chapter and page, for the viewer to be able to follow the links. These diagrams
will then be transformed with the data collected from observational sessions,
of growth, development and weaning, and be produced in a series of diagrams
showing each process. This will show how both sides to this investigation are
firmly merged at fixed times, and will be easy to read, assisted by a key.
These
philosophical diagrams (which show the connection of theoretical research to
that of observational sessions), as influenced by Freud and Lacan, are
developed through the process of screen-printing onto my daughter’s vests and
babygros. Each clothing group size will relate to relevant changes through
stages of the weaning process, also the relationship between the infant’s need
and the mother’s desire.
There
will be clear indication of this from reading the accompanying bookwork, which
will show it displayed in real time and space by setting it out in the form of
Lacan’s “Graph of desire”(Fig:1).
Fig:1 – ‘Graph of Desire’, (Bowie,M.1991,P.189).
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The
clothes printed in black will represent his horseshoe-shaped vector - that of
“the desiring subject, and has two directions: it is shown here moving in
reverse, but it moves forward too, by anticipation as well as retroaction” (Bowie,M.1991,P.189). The clothes printed in
white with a three-dimensional quality will represent the signifying chain,
which cuts straight across the horseshoe and represents the importance of this
unidirectional growth which unites mother and child.
Chapter
1- Finding the source is an introduction into the aspects I which to
investigate through out the special project.(See above)
Chapter
2- addresses the ideas around how practical and theoretical sides of the
special project are entailing to coincide with one another, in correlation to
the ideas of attachment and separateness. I intend to explain to the reader the
way in which my interpretations of the mother-daughter relationship has
influenced me so as not to inherently direct it on to my own daughter.
Chapter
3- addresses the issues around the mother-daughter relationship through Luce
Irigaray’s practice, and also drawing upon Winnicott’s ‘Good-Enough’ mother and
how I can associate this through my practical intentions, as well as
theoretical ideas.
Desire
is focused on through the sense of a traditional take on the mother not having
a desire, because the child’s needs are greater, through to the child having
desire for the mother through fixation on the breast, which connects it to
Lacan’s interpretation of the concepts of need and desire. My own experiences
as a mother are also discussed through out this chapter in the way in which I
intend to wean my daughter from breast to cup. Separateness and attachment are
also discussed in connection to desire through Virginia Woolf’s novels such as The Lighthouse.
Chapter
4- addresses the issues around authorship, by not predicting the outcome of
these developmental themes upon my daughter but letting her lead the way in her
own development. Virginia Woolf’s work and its portrayal of the mother-daughter
relationship are elaborated in the way it has changed in society today.
Likewise, this special project has been instigated by Mary Kelly’s interview
with Douglas Crimp on ‘Post Partum Document’, addressing the relationship of
Freud’s Oedipus complex, and hers with her son. This chapter ends with me
drawing upon Freud and Lacan’s abbreviated notions of ‘The Mirror Stage’ and
the way in which this has been present through my initial work with my
daughter.
Chapter
5- groups together all the initial fundamental concepts, which I have discussed
so far, making the viewer more aware of how these can therefore relate in terms
to my own practice. Discussing the Mother-daughter relationship in terms of
Object Relations Theory leads through to my own practice and that of Mary
Kelly, analysing the mirror stage once more, as well as the Oedipus and Electra
complex, concluding with Maureen Douglas-Green who is a contemporary
photographer who works with the nude.
(Some
sections of my text (presented in italics) form my own personal narrative
commentary, which reflects on my relationship with my daughter as it grows and
develops).
Chapter
2 – Being the observer
I am no longer here in all of this. I
am not the author and mother, but simply the artist who is taking the position
of observer in this disjoining of one’s own self as subject.
Within
this special project, it will be possible to chart the way in which my daughter
has grown, developed, and become weaned onto solid food, in correlation with
Lacan’s ‘Graph of Desire’(Fig:1). Growth can be a distraction when making
something physical, but with each growth period there will be a reflection upon
my daughter’s development through what has taken place within that stage, as
based upon theoretical connections and my observation. Here, the size of her
clothing corresponds to the graphs presenting these stages of her development;
e.g. 0-3mths, 3-6mths, 6-9mths and so on.
Using
graphs to suggest the changes within thinking and writing throughout each
chapter will underlie the visual ending of these diagrams, as observational
work will explain. This will allow for the discovery of relative notions or
philosophical ideas which provide the basis for my observational analysis,
which will then be transformed into graphs, showing how my daughter’s growth
relates to her behaviour and the way in which it is constantly progressing as she
develops.
Is it me or is it you, here in all of
this, either way we’ll see it through, me and you!
Creating
this path of fragmentation and layering of theory upon visual process, I
propose to achieve this through the representation of my daughter’s growth,
development and weaning stages, as screen-printed on her clothes.
Each
garment therefore has a deeper reading, which underlies the connections of
artists, philosophers, psychoanalysts and feminists. For the viewer to
experience what is being presented in front of them, I ask these questions: How
will these theories I am using relate to my practical work and how the viewer
thus sees the mother-daughter relationship developing in front of them?
Hopefully, these questions will answer themselves more clearly when the work is
presented.
Observing is second nature even though
we don’t always realize it, but we do it constantly even when we don’t mean to.
I
record my daughter’s growth in her red book (Fig:2). All these mundane notes
are records, even though it may seem to be a clinical way of recording. It has
been the way in which I have documented what she ate, her weight, growth and
development. This has helped to me to realize that I had been researching the
growth and change of my own daughter, through the process of weaning.
Fig:2,‘My Daughter’s Weight Graph,’ (Red Book,2007/08).
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If you see this, is it a reflection of
me or is it you, who knows? Only I do.
Through
this space we acquire there are present objects of reflection and solidity, yet
language seems to play the biggest part in this, overpowering the viewer by the
act of listening, suggesting what might be imposed within it. This can blur the
distinctions between where art ends and life begins and can be seen as two
separate things. I am now more convinced that they actually feed upon each
other, making the reality of life visible, just as I and my daughter are both
separate and connected.
From
my experience as a daughter I still feel that my mother’s influences are
imposed upon me. No matter how much I try to escape from this trap, which lies
between our existences, there is still a hold. This is why I am trying not to
impose my own life experience onto my daughter, making her feel free and not
bound to me, once she is an adult. So therefore, is this a question of
producing art from life or life from art?
Allowing
myself to become free from the original notions of mother-daughter
relationships, as represented by closeness and reliability, no matter how this
may be seen by society, which still poses the question as to whether or not
those notions are just a fragment of our own imaginations, as suggested by
Irigaray, or whether they still exist within some cultures.
Separateness
was once purely associated with the father, but has become faded over
time, as the role interchanges within
today’s society where neither mother/father have ultimate control over the
family structure. Traditionally, the father would be the breadwinner and go out
to work whilst the mother (the focus of attachment in this context) stayed at
home and looked after the children and the running of the household. By myself
taking on this role I become more
aware of the way in which I act towards my daughter, by letting her explore
things rather than imposing influences on her, which then forces the predicted
outcome.
To
be taking on the role as the other by
enacting the separateness of the initial attachment, one can therefore get a
better understanding of the mother’s desire. Initially, masculine
psychoanalysts and philosophers shared the opinion that desire should be seen
as linear. This is opposed to Virginia Woolf’s translation of the metaphor of
the lighthouse, where the ways in which the waves roll in, symbolise it as
curvaceous and circular, and somehow feminine, reflecting the underlying
attitudes of such a powerful feminist thinker.
This
brings me back to the notion of how I can be separate and yet attached to my
daughter. Our periods apart reinforce the close relationship we share which is
reflected in my observations of her development and my reflections upon it.
Chapter
3– Fulfilling desires
“…The
re-conceptualisation of history in special terms can be linked to the
particular post-colonial experience of Diaspora as both an identity and an
experience.” (Betterton, R.1996, P.162)
Experience is the greatest form of
learning.
If
the viewer was a mother experiencing the screen prints on my daughter’s clothes
of diagrams of need and desire, the weaning process, and connected theoretical
ideas relating to observations, may suggest an appearance of fragmentation in
our relationship. If the viewer approached this work as an observer, it would
appear non- clinical. At the same time, the mother’s pleasures and desires may
be seen as achieving satisfaction in this sensual practice.
Desire
is seen in every aspect of the practical work and is reflected in that of the
written commentary. The “unconscious is desire which is trying to speak of/to
itself and, being analysts, you have to listen without excluding anything, even
if listening to everything does call your
desire into question, even if it does mean that you risk death…”(Whitford, M. 1991, P.81). Would the viewer then
become taken over by their personal experiences and unconscious and project
this onto the work they are viewing?
If one desire is fulfilled, do we long
for another?
A child can make it harder to relate
to the mother’s desires. If the mother does not want to share hers with her
daughter, it could damage the way she is brought up, through the way in which
she acts. It is extremely important for one to explore desires whenever
necessary. Freud sees this in the oral stage - this is perhaps an experiment
into the way in which everything the child holds enters the mouth, and the fact
that it is the most sensual location in the body. Thus desire is no longer seen
as being at the forefront – need has become dominant instead.
Irigaray
states; “As for us, the daughters, if our relationship with our mothers is a
relationship with need, with no possible identity, and if we enter into desire
by becoming objects of the desire of/for the father, what do we know about our
identity and our desire? Nothing.” (Ibid). As a mother I question and challenge
this statement, as I feel that the need to breastfeed is greater than that of
any other desire. It is through weaning1 the child gains independence as its
desire transfers to the cup.
Lacan’s
translation of need is seen as being in a state of equilibrium with demand, as
he sees desire as the middle link, being set out as biological needs being satisfied
by objects. He suggests that desire is: “Desire (fundamentally in the singular)
is a perpetual effect of symbolic articulation. It is not an appetite: it is
essentially eccentric and insatiable. That is why Lacan co-ordinates it not
with object that would seem to satisfy it, but with the object that causes it
(one is reminded of fetishism).”(Lacan, J.1977,Pgs 278-279)This relates to an
earlier point where I discussed the fact that the needs of the child transcend
the desire of the mother.
I sense that it can be difficult to
represent ones own self, identity and desires if taking on these notions as a
mother.
The
mother thus becomes the guarantor of the desired social order, through the
mother-daughter relationship. In this
way, the good-enough mother enables the child to become the good-enough
citizen; “The desire is that the child becomes itself, and that by becoming
itself its connection to the watching adult becomes plain.” (Steedman, Strange
Dislocations P129).
A mother’s protection can stop her
delving into this unknown. If I was to let go of what I know and stand back as
the observer would my daughter think for herself?
So,
distancing myself from my role of mother is not a rejection of my daughter. The
mother-daughter bond is so great that separation has to be a gradual process,
starting at an early age to reduce trauma later in life.
No matter how much we give, we always
want more!
To protect and stimulate are our
mother’s own intentions
If
the mother’s desire is repressed, as suggested by Irigaray who states;
“Mothers, and the women within them, have been trapped in the role of she who
satisfies need but has no access to desire” (Whitford, M. 1991, P.51) it could
make it harder for the mother to break away from the daughter‘s needs, which
are greater than that of the mother’s desires.
Furthermore,
Irigaray suggests, “The relationship with the mother
is a mad desire…” (ibid,P.35).How then, can
the mother’s desire be repressed if the initial relationship is that of a mad
desire? The child’s needs must still be greater than that of the mother’s
desires for this to occur.
Chapter
4 – Identifying the self as subject
If one could see us……
If one could be us…..
…… we would know what it was like to
be us …..and would not envy others
Observing my daughter interacting with her surroundings, I have
noticed the progress in her development, where she is identifying herself as
subject.
I am the author or are you?
“The
proper state for a western person is to have ownership of the self, to have and
hold a core identity as if it were a possession. That possession may be made
from various raw materials over time, or one may be born with it. ……..not to
have property in the self is not to be a subject, and so not to have
agency.”(Haraway, 1987:135)
There
is a link within Roland Barthe’s essay on ‘Death of the Author’ with the
authorship and the artistic origin being self expressed through the work of
art, to the critique of the individual being the source of thought and action.
Barthes then goes on to challenge this: “The author is a modern figure, a
product of our society insofar as, emerging from the Middle Ages with English
empiricism, French rationalism and the personal faith of the Reformation, it
discovered the prestige of the individual, of, as, it is more nobly put, the
‘human person’.” ( Barthes 1977a: 142-3 in Betterton, R. 1996, P.164)
Distancing myself lets the unexpected
happen
It
is through experience that my daughter develops her own identity without my
influence as a mother. Therefore my daughter will develop her independence and
authority as time goes on. I can take my mind away from determining the outcome
by distancing myself through being the observer and letting her take the lead
through her development, growing and weaning.
Even
though the viewer may question the integrity of whether it is possible for a
mother to just be the observer of her daughter’s life, as opposed to
participating in it and influencing her development. This is seen in Kelly’s
‘Post -Partum Document’. In an interview with Douglas Crimp she says: “…
something that I see looking back is that distancing myself from the child, the
work becomes more premeditated.” (Iverson,M,.Crimp,D,.Bhabha,H.1997,P.16).
Taking control of the art
The child identifies with the mirror,
no longer needing it as the beginning for misplacement within the world. The
child now turns away leaving it behind, and seeing the world through its own
eyes.
According
to Freud, once the child has reached the age of 6-18 months it no longer needs
the mirror to identify with itself, as the child owns its ego and can therefore
explore the world independently. Lacan has based his concept through:
“The
idea of the "mirror stage” is an important early component in
Lacan’s critical re-interpretation of the work of
Freud. Lacan proposes that human infants pass through a stage in which an
external image of the body (reflected in a mirror, or represented to the infant
through the mother or primary caregiver) produces a psychic response that gives
rise to the mental representation of an "I".
Here, the infant
identifies with the image, which serves as a gestalt of their emerging
perceptions of selfhood, … For Lacan, the mirror stage establishes the ego as
fundamentally dependent upon external objects on another.” (www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/index.html).
This was observed when my daughter was subject to a mirror at 4mths and
again at 6mths when she eventually rejected it.
Chapter
5 – Where this lies in art, psychoanalysis, feminism and philosophy
By being daughter and mother, is it my
fixation of another object on you from me?
Object
relations theorists investigate the inner images of self and other and how they
manifest themselves in interpersonal situations. Within this, narcissism refers
to the turning back on oneself, which is apparent in the mirror stage, and
relates back to the mother-daughter relationship, emphasising their interaction
with one another. As suggested by Irigaray; “An early, essential, and
significant relationship between mother and child precedes and influences all
other developmental phases”. (Alpert, 185 in Whitford,M.(1991)) This was evident when my daughter was being weaned from breast
to cup, but this was not an easily achieved success as her desire for the
breast was still very great. This became a key stage in the process of
transformation from need to desire, which marks my daughter’s growing
independence and is evident through her need being greater than my desire.
If one was to look outside of their
own practice, I wonder what they might find?
Contemporary photographer Maureen Douglas- Green uses the nude in
nature. I reflected upon her work and the views we both share. I found a
connection when talking (see appendix) to her with that of Mary Kelly and my
own work.
As a teenager in her 20s Green saw many
feminists, and knew many quite well. What she saw of 'out and out feminist behaviour' started to
show her that those people who expressed such views so vehemently, were, in her
opinion, actually not comfortable with themselves. They did not fully know
themselves or their capabilities.
Green stated that it was not only the nude
she hoped to liberate through her work; it was people's vision - to release
them from a blinkered approach to life. In our correspondence she made great
emphasis of the fact that her work is not
a result of reflecting her parenthood. Her approach
to work is that of separateness rather than attachment to her children whereas
I take on the role of separateness,
but at the same time attached to my daughter.
In her video work, sequences emerged as
the result of a unique topographical
environment. She feels that society makes
us think of curves as being feminine and the colouring present at Nanven, in
the ore-rich mining activity spoil-heaps, naturally uncovered by the sea, would
be perceived as having very female attributes. She added that she was far more
interested in the symbiotic relationship of the algae and mineralization
causing the rock to appear to have menstrual qualities, than in the perceived
feminine symbolism. She categorically states that there is neither conscious
nor subconscious desire to fill any child related 'gap' in her life.
The
way, in which the initial layer may be seen on my daughter’s clothes as a
reference point to her development and growth, through to the bigger underlying
message is that of the behavioural change and growth which therefore relates
back to how all this theory acts as the non-surface layer to the gradual change
in my daughter.
Is it easier said than done?
Art
practice and the process of diary-keeping from observational development,
leading to installations and bookwork’s, can be seen in the work of Mary
Kelly’s “Post Partum Document”. I have been able to use this to emphasise my
daughter’s development through the visual representations in the form of an
installation. From doing this I have noticed similarities between Kelly’s
Screen Prints (Fig:3) and that of my own (Fig:4)
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Fig:4 – ‘Installation’ (Hardy,E.2008) Fig:3- ‘Post-Partum Document Introduction’, (Kelly,M.1998,P5)
Kelly
draws upon rejection of the mirror in this work, which has a very clinical way
of letting the child identify with its self. She suggests this by saying: “The
rejection of the ‘mirror’ of photographic self-portraits, the countering the
subjective diary elements with objective texts is rightly seen as a criticism
of feminists art dependant on those very components, and perhaps as a surrender
of some compassion for other women’s identity crisis.” (Iverson,M,.Crimp,D,.Bhabha,H.1997,P24)
Kelly’s
work is seen as an “on-going process of analysis and visualisation of the
mother-child relationship” but she later informs us that it proposes
controversial questions into the mother’s desires[1].
I was able to make contact with her by email and posed these
questions;
Do you think your relationship would have been different if you had had
a daughter as rather than a son ?
Would you have investigated the Electra complex instead of the Oedipus
complex? Do you think as a mother you would have investigated the
mother-daughter relationship if this had been the case?3
I
posed these questions as I wanted to know if she would have looked at the
mother-daughter relationship in a similar way to my questioning its integrity.
(See appendix)
If a son, is it all
about the Oedipus complex?
Freud found that the Oedipus complex is more successful
than the Electra complex. The mother – son relationship is much simpler than
the mother – daughter relationship as it is seen as a very strong but complex bond,
which can be very hard to break as the child finds its own identity. The need
from the mother is greater and therefore can make it more difficult for both to
experience desire - except that of the father.
Kelly identified similar issues, by using her son as the
basis of her research, with separateness seen as one of luxury as a
relationship and is based around the initial Oedipus complex, which emphasises
the traditional psychoanalytical view. Freud looks at the way in which the boy
is observed as having his mother at his fingertips.
Does feminism play a part in all of
this?
These
artists and their practices have links to feminism and the way in which the
mother-daughter relationship is formed and was best seen through Shirley Nelson
Garner’s article on “Constructing the
Mother: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theorists and women Auto biographers”.
Garner is interested in intersections of feminism and psychoanalysis: Seeing
feminism through its broadest sense, “putting the biologically female and the
culturally feminine at the centre of experience and looking from the
perspective.”
Garner
explores Winnicott’s argument of the mother-daughter relationship through the
outcome of motherhood, seeing it as a woman who has reached maturity, and has
understood this triumph but rather signified the acceptance of an essentially
masochistic destiny.
Winnicott
takes this further through; “ The good-enough ‘mother’ (not necessarily the
infant’s own mother) is one who makes active adaptation to the infant’s needs,
an active adaptation that gradually lessens, according to the infant’s growing
ability to account for failure of adaptation and to tolerate the results of
frustration.” (Ibid)
The
idea that the mother lays down the foundations for the child’s mental health, suggests
to me that the mother and child are much more dependant on one another than it
first appears.
Garner
draws upon Freud’s Oedipal complex, by saying: “The
way a woman supposedly finally overcome her penis envy was through gaining a
man – a surrogate for her father – and having a baby, preferably a boy, which
assured her, according to Freud, the most perfect of human
relationships.”(Ibid)
She
goes onto examine how Freud began to recognise the importance of the
pre-oedipal period and how the mother’s significance plays a big part in the
child’s development.
Irigaray
also discusses this through Freud’s analogy on the way in which the father is
torn up because of Oedipus, but as she comments, he forgets to talk about the
mother already being torn between father and son. She goes onto address the
mother’s significance on her child and that of her own body by saying: “ When
it concerns itself with the life of the drives, psychoanalysis certainly talks
to us of the mother’s breast, of the milk she gives us to drink, of the faeces
she accepts…………………….What is more, isn’t this bodily encounter [ corps-a\ corps]
with the mother- and it is probably not without its difficulties – fantasized
post-Oedipally, re-projected after the Oedipus/”(Whitford, M.1991,P.38).
Being
seen as a mirror to my daughter helps her to respond to the outside world. I
see this as a clear reflection into what I see through my eyes. My daughter
relates to and reassures herself in her surroundings through me. Garner also
sees this, but she extends it by saying that the mother’s face reflects what
she sees in the baby’s face, “the infant sees not the mothers face, according
to Winnicott, but herself or himself.” Winnicott has a very linear way of
thinking, with no consideration for gender, race, age, environment. He slightly
contradicts himself by saying, “When the mother is distracted, depressed, or
otherwise unable to give back what the infant offers, so that he/she sees only
a face, the infants…” (Playing, 112-113 in Ibid)
Winnicott’s
notion of the effect upon the child when the mother is not present, is
something which I have experience with my own daughter when I am away from her.
He suggests this:“a mothers prolonged absence causes a ‘break in life’s
continuity’. An infant’s experience of such a break is, he suggests, equivalent
to the experience of madness”. (Playing, 97 in Ibid)
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This parallels Irigarays thinking behind madness, as she
expresses it by saying: “ All desire is connected to madness”(Whitford,
M.1991,P.35). This makes them on a par with one another, but it feels as though
Irigaray has developed the signs of madness into desire with the mother, as if
Winnicott may not be suggesting such a pinning down of madness.
Fig:5 – ‘Installation”
Screen-prints close up.
The
diagrams screen-printed onto my daughter’s clothes (Fig:5) are the result of
observations representing the mother’s relationship with the daughter and that
of their desires. Once the weaning process is complete the new object of desire
is translated through the form of the cup, which replaces the mother as the original
object of desire.
The layering of theory through the screen-printing process is
visually similar to the way in which a woman is displaced in her relationship
with her daughter. It is more tangential and over crossed in the threads that
bond the child with the mother. Observing my daughter highlights the way in
which I view my own relationship with my mother, by showing her developing
independence and breaking down these layers, which I feel, are unmanageably
complex in the case of my own relationship with my mother.
Woolf insists that; “We think back through our mothers if we are
women.” (Postmodernist Plots/ Maternal subjects, pg126). Here, the mother and
daughter react to one another through the way in which their relationship is
underlined. Whereas Irigaray stresses: “The bond between mother and daughter,
daughter and mother, must be broken so that the daughter can become women.”
(pg43) I think that both of these statements are true and once we break away,
we can use our mothers as a point of reference to be able to develop, just as I
hope my daughter will do with me.
References
Iverson,M,.Crimp,D,.Bhabha,H.(1997):Mary Kelly, Phaidon
Kelly,M.(1998):Post-Partum Document,University of
California Press
Stevens,R.(1983):Freud and Psychoanalysis, The Open
University Press
Gay,P.(1998):Freud –A Life for our time,W.W.Norton,New
York
Elliott,A(1998):Freud 2000,Polity Press
Betterton,R.(1996)An Intimate Distance,Routledge
Robinson,H.(2006):Reading Art, Reading Irigaray,I.B.Tauris
Lacan,J.(1977):The Four Fundamental Concepts of
Psycho-analysis,Penguin Press
Bowie,M.(1991):Lacan,Fontana Press
Hirsch,M.(1989):The Mother/Daughter Plot-narrative,
psychanalysis, feminisim, Indiana University Press
Whitford,M.(1991):The Irigaray Reader,Blackwell
Irigaray,L.(1993):Je,tu,nous – Toward a culture of difference,Routledge
Hodgson,J.(1993):The search for the self,Sheffield
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Field,T.(1982):Emotion and Early Interaction,Lawrence
Enlbaum Associates.
Holabird,K.(1978)Women on Women,Aurum Press
Foster,H.(1983):Postmodern Culture,Pluto Press
Joyce,J.(2000):A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man,Penguin
Taylor,V.&Winquist,C.(2001):Encyclopedia of Postmodernism,Routledge
Welchman,J.(2003):Foul Perfection, - Essays & Cristicsm,The
MIT Press
Kuppers,P.(2005):Disability and Contemporary
Performance:Bodies on Edge,Routledge
Leslie,J.(2002):Essential Behaviour Analysis,Arnold
Publishers
Kelley,M.(2004):The Uncanny,Verlag der Buchhandlung
Walther Konig
Lawler,S.(2000):Mothering the self – mothers,daughters,subjects,Routledge
Irigaray,L.(1975):Speculum of the other woman,Cornell
University Press
Lacan,J.(1980):Ecrits:A Selection Translated By Bruce Fink
Bassin,D,.Honey,M,.Mahrer
Kaplan,M.(2007):Representations of
Motherhood,Yale University Press
Piontelli,A.(1992)
From fetus to child: An Observational and Psychoanalytic Study,Routledge
Mcdonald,H.(2000):Erotic Ambiguities – The female nude in art,
Routledge –Taylor and Francis Group
Abel,E.(1989):Virginia Woolf and the fictions of Psychoanalysis,University
of Chicago Press
Goldman,J.(1998):The feminist aesthetics of Virginia Woolf
: modernism, post-impressionism, and the politics of the visual,Cambridge
University Press
Gosso,S.(2004):Psychoanalysis and Art, Kleinian
Perspectives,Karnac Books
Woolf,V.(2002):A Room of Ones Own,Penguin Classics
Black,J,.Mitchell,S.(1995):Freud and Beyond:A History of Modern
Psychanalytic thought,New York
Jacobus,M.(2005):The Poetics of Psychoanalysis-In the wake of
Klein, Oxford University Press
Field,J.(1950):On not being able to paint,Heinemann
Field,J.(1986): A life of ones own,Heinemann
Doy,
G. (2005): Picturing the Self - changing
views of the subject in visual culture, I.B. Tauris
Daly,
B., & Reddy, M. (1991): Narrating
Mothers, University of Tennessee Press
Emmanuel,
S., & Goold, P. (2002): Modern
Philosophy, Blackwell Publishers
Journals Articles
Nelson Garner,S.(1991) “Constructing the Mother: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theorists and
women Auto biographers”,P76-94
Carson,J.(1999)
‘Mea Culpa:A Conversation with Mary
Kelly-An interview’,Art Journal,Winter
Mawr,B.(2003)
‘Kelly’s Method,Lacans Science,and Other
Easily Misrecongised Pictures:on Post-Partum Document, Picturing Women: A
cross-disciplinary symposium,P19-20
Freiberg,F.(1982/3)
‘The Post-Partum Document:The Maternal
Object and the Works of Mary Kelly’LIP,A Feminist Art Journal,Issue7
Gopnik,B.(2007)
‘What is Feminist Art?’, Washington
Post staff Writer Sunday, P5
E-Journal
Blumroser-Sela,S.(2002)
‘Psychoanalytic Explanations for the
Transition of Writers from Poetry to ProseWriting’Psyart-online journal,
www.clas.ifl.edu/ipsa/journal/2002
Exhibition
Batteries not included: Mind as
Machine, The
Whittingham Riddell Shrewsbury Open Art Exhibition 2007
Websites
Steedman,S.Strange
Dislocations,www.mocu.org/wack/
Glover,N.‘Psychoanalytic Aesthetics:The Britsish
School, Chapter 6: Art, Creativity and the Potential Space’.,www.human-nature.com/free-associations/glover/.
(www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/index.html).
Appendix 1
To - Mary
Kelly [mkelly1@ucla.edu]
Dear Mary,
I was
thrilled to get a response from you ! As I have already acknowledged, I am sure
you are a very busy person, so I hope that you find my question concise and not
too demanding.
In relation
to “Post-Partum Document”, do you think your relationship would have been
different if you had had a daughter rather than a son. Would you have
investigated the Electra complex instead of the Oedipus complex? Do you think
as a mother you would have investigated the mother-daughter relationship if
this had been the case?
Yours
sincerely
Emma Hardy (
nee Porch )
|
Re:
Assisting fine art student |
|
Mary Kelly
[mkelly1@ucla.edu] |
|
|
Sent : 23
January 2008 20:36 |
|
To: |
|
|
|
|
Dear Emma,
Send your
question. I'll look at it.
Best,
Mary
On Jan 23,
2008, at 7:32 AM, (s) Emma Porch wrote:
Dear Mary,
I am
currently a third year Fine Art Student (BA(HONS) FINE ART), at
the
university of plymouth. Writing my thesis and drawing upon
simularities
between Post-Partum Document and my own Practice as an
artists and
mother.
I was
hoping if I could e-mail you a very short question to assist me
in my
writing.
I
understand you are very busy, and would greatly appreciate it if
you could
spare the time.
Thank you once
again.
Emma
Dear Maureen
I
am taking this opportunity to update you with what I’m doing in this “Special
Project”. I’d be grateful if you could look at this section which refers to
your work and philosophies and let me know if any of it offends or if you would
like to add any remarks.
I’m
sorry that I’m never in the right place to be able to visit any of your
exhibitions – when are you exhibiting in the Levinsky Building ?
Hope
you and the family are well – still fond memories of our visit to you last year
!
Best
wishes
Emma
(Hardy)
xxxx
Contacting a contemporary
photographer Maureen Douglas- Green who was subject to the 1970’s second wave
of feminism, and uses the nude in nature, I thought that she would have been
influenced by this and the intense notions of women’s liberty akin to that of
Virginia Woolf. I reflected upon her and her work and the views we both share
-issues greater than being angry at men, but found she was much more placid and
saw it as a chance to liberate the nude, by connecting to the Earth from which
we came. This was in stark contrast to that of Virginia Woolf’s readings.
I found a connection when talking to
her with that of Mary Kelly and to my own work. She was also very interested in
the way in which mother and child interact. I found similarities to the way in
which she discussed influences which had been imposed on her, and the fact she
had boys - she had never imposed the oedipal complex on them, letting them be
free to the world to explore for themselves.
When I discussed parts of my
observational work with her, such as the recordings of different cries which my
daughter had made during her early development, she had remarked that it was
something so mundane like that which reminds you of how linguistic they are from
the beginning, and how each baby has its own vocabulary of sounds from a very
early age, making them unique beings.
Douglas-Green did not feel the need to
explore her relationships with her sons through her work as she expressed her
‘selves’ through her own work as a model and photographer and the way in which
she interacted with nature. Both her female models, naturally emerging as seen
in her video work, and the places where they were filmed have very feminine
features. It makes one realise that there is a hidden message of trying to fill
the gap of a daughter never born, or an experience which she has never known
how to unravel. Her half-open thistle photograph has a resemblance to that of a
foetus joined to the umbilical cord not yet being born, but just surrounded by
warmth and comfort. There are deep penetrative layers in both Kelly and
Douglas-Green’s work resembling that of my initial investigation into bringing
practical and theory together through the ways of observation.
Appendix 2
|
Re: Special Project - Hello ! |
|
Maureen Douglas-Green [mpdg@blueyonder.co.uk] |
|
Sent: |
24 January 2008 16:11 |
|
To: |
|
|
|
|
Hi
Emma,
Good
to hear from you. Undoubtedly we'll catch up
with
each other at some stage!
I
thought it sensible to just go through what you
have
written point by point, and then you can sort things out form there.
Hope
all goes well with your work.
Very
best wishes and good luck,
mx
At
10:51 24/01/2008, you wrote:
>Dear
Maureen
>
>I
am taking this opportunity to update you with
>what
I’m doing in this “Special Project”. I’d be
>grateful
if you could look at this section which
>refers
to your work and philosophies and let me
>know
if any of it offends or if you would like to add any remarks.
>
>I’m
sorry that I’m never in the right place to
>be
able to visit any of your exhibitions when
>are
you exhibiting in the Levinsky Building ?
>
>Hope
you and the family are well still fond
>memories
of our visit to you last year !
>
>Best
wishes
>
>Emma
(Hardy)
>
>xxxx
>
>
>Contacting a contemporary
photographer Maureen
>Douglas-
Green who was subject to the 1970’s second wave of feminism,
As
a teenager and then in my 20s, I saw so many
feminists,
and knew many quite well. (And still
do!)
What I saw of 'out and out feminist
behaviour'
started to show me that those people
who
expressed such views so vehemently, were
actually
not comfortable with themselves. They
did
not fully know themselves or their
capabilities.
They tended to blame 'men' for
their
own shortcomings as the result of this.
Anyone,
male or female can achieve whatever they
wish.
This was my parents' philosophy and was
based
on their parents' determination for
equality.
The women in my family have shown
amazing
strength and determination through many
generations.
Social and financial conditions in
my
mother's and grandmothers' times prevented
them
from achieving their ambitions, but sure as
eggs
is eggs, they had no intention of their
daughters
being shackled to the stereotypical
kitchen
sink. In societies where male domination
is
culturally ingrained and women genuinely
undervalued,
treated as a chattel, and denied
basic
human rights, there is of course need for
dramatic,
powerful and single-minded action.
Apart
form that, a woman has the ability to work
quietly,
unobtrusively, determinedly, positively
and
subtly to achieve whatever she wants (whilst
also
doing everything else as well). She has a
myriad
of aids at her disposal to achieve those
aims,
the deviousness to use possibly unfair
tactics
when required, and the intelligence to
succeed.
If a woman doubts that she has those
abilities,
then she tends to become a vociferous feminist!
>
and uses the nude in nature, I thought that
>
she would have been influenced by this and the
>
intense notions of women’s liberty akin to that
>
of Virginia Woolf. I reflected upon her and her
>
work and the views we both share -issues
>
greater than being angry at men, but found she
>
was much more placid and saw it as a chance to
>
liberate the nude, by connecting to the Earth
>
from which we came. This was in stark contrast
>
to that of Virginia Woolf’s readings.
It
is by no means only the nude I hope to
liberate
through my work; it is people's vision.
To
release them from a blinkered approach to
life,
looking and living, and to help them to be
in
tune with the world around them which contains
so
much more than just humans, but happens also
to
have humans of both male and female types there as well.
>I
found a connection when talking to her with
>that
of Mary Kelly and to my own work. She was
>also
very interested in the way in which mother
>and
child interact. I found similarities to the
>way
in which she discussed influences which had
>been
imposed on her, and the fact she had boys -
>she
had never imposed the oedipal complex on
>them,
letting them be free to the world to explore for themselves.
>
>When
I discussed parts of my observational work
>with
her, such as the recordings of different
>cries
which my daughter had made during her
>early
development, she had remarked that it was
>something
so mundane like that which reminds you
>of
how linguistic they are from the beginning,
>and
how each baby has its own vocabulary of
>sounds
from a very early age, making them unique beings.
A
baby is purely a small person whose abilities
should
never be underestimated, and whose
character
has not had the chance to be
constrained
by the inhibitions and lack of
perception
by 'adults' in their very early independent life.
>Douglas-Green
did not feel the need to explore
>her
relationships with her sons through her work
>as
she expressed her ‘selves’ through her own
>work
as a model and photographer and the way in
>which
she interacted with nature. Both her
>female
models, naturally emerging as seen in her
>video
work, and the places where they were filmed have very feminine features.
In
the sequence that you saw, there were 11
models
in all, two of whom were men.
For me, that sequence emerged in the way that
it
did as the result of a unique topographical
environment.
Society makes us think of curves as
being
feminine and certainly the colouring
present
at Nanven , in the ore rich mining
activity
remains, and naturally uncovered by the
sea,
would be perceived as having very female
attributes.
But I hasten to add that I am
actually
far more interested in the symbiotic
relationship
of the algae and mineralization
causing
the rock to appear to have menstrual
qualities,
than I am in the perceived feminine symbolism.
>
It makes one realise that there is a hidden
>
message of trying to fill the gap of a daughter never born,
No.
If that is the interpretation you put on my
work,
then that is the idea you hold.and it is
not
shared by me. I would categorically state
that
there is neither conscious or subconscious
desire
to fill any child related 'gap' in my life.
I
have been given the gift of two wonderful sons.
I
would have liked to have had a daughter, (and I
would
like £1,000,000, but so? I will never
hanker
for what is not obtainable in the natural
law
of things!) , certainly, but I have not for
one
moment considered that my work in any way
reflects
a gap in my life because I am not the
mother
of a daughter. I do have a surrogate
daughter,
whom I adore, and am glad to be 'just
there'
for her, should she ever need me.
Undoubtedly
when, or if my sons have female
partners,
I know that they will be in tune with
me,
and I with them, because of the character of
my
sons, and their intellectual, cultural,
aesthetic
and physical needs, because of the way
that
they have been brought up in what is quite an unusual family. .
>or
an experience which she has never known how to unravel.
Believe
me, if I want to unravel something - IF
it
needs unravelling, I will do so.
>Her
half-open thistle photograph has a
>resemblance
to that of a foetus joined to the
>umbilical
cord not yet being born, but just surrounded by warmth and comfort.
That
is very much your interpretation of a
photograph
which for me holds the utmost
fascination
because it is such an incredible
example
of the Fibonacci sequence.
>
There are deep penetrative layers in both
>
Kelly and Douglas-Green’s work resembling that
>
of my initial investigation into bringing
>
practical and theory together through the ways of observation.
Oh
dear, I hope I haven't undone your thought or
caused
you to re write things !!!!!!!
As
I said to you when you visited, I refuse to
have
my work put into a 'Genre'. I look and I
see.
I look beyond what many people think they
see
to what is actually there. A keen interest in
all
the sciences, mathematics and art affects my
visual
eye. Literature and the beauty of language
affects
my seeing and some pictures not only
speak,
but evoke music. I love my world. I love
people.
I love my family. I care. I am totally
driven
by my art for the first time in my life.
If
my results cause people to think for
themselves,
I am pleased, no matter what they may
think.
It is the thinking process that is
important
and the individuality of thought based
on
experience and the wisdom of others and self wisdom
Hope this is helpful and do destructive.
Again,
best wishes and I hope you can get some more ideas form this!
m
|
RE: Special Project - Hello ! |
|
Sent: |
27 January 2008 12:30 |
|
To: |
|
|
|
|
Thanks
Maureen,
That’s
great I can now change things around and make more sense of what I was trying
to say.
I
am glad you picked each bit apart as I would of hated to of put things in which
were not true on reflection of you and your art.
Thanks
once again.
Emma
___________________
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count: 4, 970.