Art and conversion : an investigation of ritual, memory and healing in the process of making art
Date
2006-03
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
This thesis investigates the concept of conversion which arose out of the process of
making soap as medium for my body of sculptural works and signifying its material
transformation with ‘cleaning’ and ‘conversion’ – terms encountered in research into
chemical transformation (in alchemy) and further endorsed by my linking my
sculptural forms, resembling fonts, to religious conversion. A line of theoretical
research was thus traced into ritual as an embodied experience of recalling memory in
the desire for redemption or healing.
Contemporary South Africa art, it seemed, was also going through a conversion
process. The movement, from the domination of apartheid to the profound change of
the ‘new South Africa’, necessitated a sense of tolerance in response to the
reawakening of the diversity of cultures, rituals and memories. Thus present debate
surrounding the concerns of reconciliation and restitution requires a re-evaluation of
the importance of memory – to forget, to renew or to uphold – in the desire for
healing. This has re-awakened an appreciation of multi-cultural rituals and invoked
new self-consciousness and a reformulation of identity.
I was thus inspired to investigate transformation in terms of art theory, psychology
and philosophy. By identifying Freud’s psychoanalytic concept of transference and of
‘working-through’ as a part of his ‘Theory of Conversion’, I arrived at this
proposition: art initiates an awakening of self-consciousness. In arguing for the
vitality of the mythopoetic imagination, as held within the unconscious, however, I
claim that art, as an embodied process, draws from memory, and resonates within the
context of a ritualised empathic interrelatedness of ourselves as humans in the
environment.
In attempting to understand the South African transformation, which resembles the
spirit of Renaissance Humanism, I examined how historical shifts influence both
inter-human and environment/human relationships. Operating largely in terms of the
transference of power and belief, these moved, in an ever-recurring cycle, through
sixteenth century Renaissance Humanism, which tolerated diverse religious
convictions, to Cartesian reason and the quest for certainty, manifesting in religious
and politically motivated wars. This revolution, I believe, has occurred again from
the modern to the postmodern era.
I believe, therefore, that art has a healing capacity. This flows from a metanoia – a
turning around – effected in both artist and audience. Through this creative and
aesthetic view of art, experienced in my practical making and substantiated in my
theoretical research, art, I conclude, initiates inner conversion and thus healing.
Description
Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
Keywords
Dissertations -- Art, Theses -- Art, Dissertations -- Visual arts, Theses -- Visual arts, Conversion in art, Art and religion, Rites and ceremonies in art, Healing in art, Arts -- Therapeutic use, Memory in art