Inbetween : drawing breath : an embodied practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract

In this inquiry I explore the role of phenomenology and embodiment within a drawing practice. In phenomenology of Perception (1945), French Philosopher Maurice Merleau Ponty argued that people perceive and conceptualize everything bodily. He stipulated that our very consciousness is embodied. My closest companion on my journey is the philosopher Gaston Bachelard (Bachelard, 1969). Bachelard insists on the transfer of the poet’s affectivity to the surrounding space and objects: a process, which endows all matter with a poetic essence and expands the experience of intimate space into a poetic space. My practice is a perceptual experience of space and time, which focuses closely on the senses and sensuality. When applying Bachelard’s philosophy in the studio issues around embodiment arose. It became obvious that this project was bigger than the studio could contain, it needed to take a walk. In large-scale performative drawings I am exploring the inbetween space that I experience when taking a walk, when the rhythm of my body and imagining consciousness slips into another space where daydreams open up and expands my experience of a vast inner landscape. The resulting works are a form of lyrical abstraction. ‘Each one of us should make a surveyor’s map of his lost fields and meadows. In this way we cover the universe with drawings where we have lived. These drawings need not be exact, but they need to be written according to the shapes of our inner landscapes.’ Gaston Bachelard