| Summary: | This is a practice-led research project with the focus of the research being conducted by my practice as a visual artist. This project explores notions centred on the concept of the ontological journey, here equated with the being's search for his/her inner spiritual nature. The theme is interrogated through the production of three pieces of three-dimensional artwork in tandem with a contextually significant exhibition space, and accompanying written component. Whilst having several points of interaction, each of the objects endorses one fundamental aspect of the ontological journey. These are: the search or quest by the being for his/her counterpart. the encounter of those two aspects: the quest's teleology. the revelation of the spiritual interior which the journey entails: the process of inner revelation. Saudade, an idiosyncratic Portuguese sense of nostalgia, is here considered as the underlying emotion that propels the search. Eros is the attractive and binding energy that impels the quest, and is responsible for the consummation of the journey. The main method used in the production of the artwork is `poetic logic' (Tarkovsky), a process of creation by semantic and formal analogy. Symbolism, here understood as the formal representation of a prototypical idea, plays a crucial role in the production and analysis of the sculpture. The underlying philosophy behind the artistic enquiry is the philosophy of alchemy, here understood mainly from the perspectives of the interplay of duality in nature, and as a process of transmutation.
|
|---|
