Uncanny urges : the familiar made strange : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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Date
2013
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Massey University
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Abstract
My research is centred on examinations of the uncanny. I am interested in strategies of the uncanny and the fetish, both Surrealist strategies and how these strategies create psychologically compelling images and objects. I perceive the uncanny in my work as the familiar made strange through eccentric juxtapositions of every day materials, objects and images. Through a diverse range of artists such as Pat Brassington, Sarah Lucas, Louise Bourgeois and Hans Bellmar I have explored key strategies of the uncanny to locate my own practice. I also draw theoretically from the works of Sigmund Freud, Nicholas Royle, Julia Kristeva and W.D. Winnicott. Methods of play are utilised to examine the possibility of an uncanny aesthetic through a process of bricolage whereby photographs and sculptural forms are constructed from various everyday materials available or on hand. Through this method I investigate how photographs and sculpture can operate as uncanny or fetishistic stand-ins for the body, which is always absent although a primary referent for my work.
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Keywords
Adi Brown, The uncanny (Psychoanalysis), Installation art, Criticism and interpretation