The Work of Art is the Work of Embodiment

Art based exploration into the relationship between art, art therapy & art therapy education. Objectives: • To explore the interface of the artist, art therapist & art therapy educators experience. • To develop critical thinking about the notion of embodiment in these experiences • To develop awareness of art based methods in art therapy education The presentation will situate the audience inside an installation art work and provide an opportunity to reflect on this experience. The installation includes images, projections, film & performance. This work is a collaboration of a team of four art therapy educators from UWS (Linnell, Perry, Pretorius, Westwood). Our art making collaboration explores the interface of our experiences in our roles and identities as artists, art therapists and educators. Our work is about complex emotional landscapes. Our practice has been inspired by the use of art based methods in the teaching and learning processes in art therapy education. Aspects of the work presented here today have been presented at several different sites. With developing themes which have evolved and have also been titled:Where knowing & not knowing touch In this presentation the intention is to create an experience for the audience to enter into the work and to engage, reflect and explore these themes through art making and to open up thinking about art therapy, art and art therapy education. It is a kind of ‘meta level’ of exploration, through the embodiment of a process