Art-making as ritual : an exploration and development of a personal iconography

M.Tech. (Fine Art)Abstract: This study is a self-reflexive journey into how my art-making practices engender a sense of self-actualisation within me, and is framed within a post-modern paradigm, which allows for an open-ended and non-formulaic exploration. I have employed a practice-led research methodology as it entails an on-going reflexive analysis of both the creative process and the art work. The nature of my art work is process driven, and although I am an artist I refer to myself as a ‘maker’. For me, the end product is often not the prime focus. Rather, it is the process of making that elicits a sense of fulfilment and purpose within me. The topic of this research stems from my experience as a maker, and I examine and discuss this experience in several ways in this dissertation. I recognise elements of ritual, alchemy and liminality within the processes of my art-making, and I investigate how they enable transformation and support a sense of self-realisation. Rituals can be classified as a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order, and they denote a transition from one state to another that results in a transformative shift in consciousness. Catherine Bell (1992:88) suggests that activities not usually associated with ritual, yet having ritual-like characteristics, can be construed as a ritual through the process of “ritualisation”, and it is within this context that I locate my making processes. Victor Turner (in Duncan 1996:11), acknowledged the period of transition existing within rituals as a “betwixt and between” state of liminality where transformation can occur. Although Turner developed his ideas within an anthropological perspective, liminality can be used to describe the art-making experience. It may operate on both the physical and mental levels and it is within this context that I experience liminality. When I withdraw into my studio space I often find myself lapsing into a meditative state. Alchemy is also concerned with transformation, and is traditionally associated with the transmutation of base metals, such a lead, into gold. This process can be interpreted as a metaphor for the transformation of the human psyche, and I relate to the processes of de-construction and re-construction found within alchemy to my processes of making. Two artists who used the notion of transformation within their work are Joseph Cornell and Joseph Beuys, and I investigate how their work demonstrates characteristics of an alchemical act of redemption. Cornell expressed this in his use of found objects which he assembled in boxes to create compelling art works, thus elevating their status from the mundane to the beautiful. Beuys (in Stachelhaus 1991:68) maintained that art has the ability to reawaken and transform the..