LANGUAGE | MATERIAL | MIMESIS

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Copyright: Corbet, David
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Abstract
This studio-based research investigates the diverse manifestations of language in contemporary art, with a focus on contemporary practice where language, materiality and mimetic function are interdependent aspects of the creative work. At the heart of this is the question of metaphysical transformation in art – an apparently subjective phenomenon which appears to exceed causative principles, operating within a fluctuating cultural and conceptual matrix of ascribed meanings, and delivering ‘transcendental’ affect. At the outset I outline my knowledge base with reference to art theory, cultural studies, linguistics, philosophy, metaphysics, comparative religion and mythology, referencing a number of writers who deal with diverse cultural manifestations of ritual, metaphor and mimesis in the visual arts. Following this, I discuss the cross-currents of global contemporary practice that have been influential to my work as an artist, thinker and writer. A line is traced from early twentieth century conceptual art movements through aspects of metaphysical art and contemporary shamanic practice in mediated and unmediated societies, considering the work of artists whose practice interrogates notions of equivalence, materiality, metaphor, cultural identity and alterity. My own studio work and iconography is outlined through tropes of phenomenology, emotionality and materiality, with key strands of practice identified, including technological investigations such as photosequencing and video compositing. In conclusion I explore the possibility that all significant human facture has an ontological rather than a causative genesis, deriving from our shared genetic code, and suggest that it is ‘innate’ code recognition that, experientially, distinguishes powerful works of art. Such approaches are resistant to taxonomical analysis, and tend to undermine the basis of much traditional scholarship in the plastic arts. The outcome of this research is presented through a catalogue raisonée of component works, and an immersive, ‘artist at work’ final installation, where the work is progressed for the duration of the exhibition. In this way, new meanings and ‘language particles’ emerge from the juxtaposition and aggregation of a series of series – a conversation with multiple vocabularies, where liminality thrives, and mysterious forces are at play.
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Author(s)
Corbet, David
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Publication Year
2011
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Thesis
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
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