My work within the subject module, deals with the unconscious, in particular memories, or snippets of memories that we cling to, memories that have formed our personalities, that have in time faded. Once so important now a distant blurred image. The perceptions of what happened, a representation of the psyches perception of an event, based on emotion rather than fact. It is this emotional response to a distant memories or feeling, I have been trying to capture within my work. Initially I found this task difficult, I was focusing too hard on creating an aesthetically pleasing piece of art, using colours I deemed pleasing to the eye that corresponded with the shapes produced, every step was premeditated. This rigid form of art making did not fit the ideas it was trying to put forth in the form of a creative response. Only through more academic research into artists of the past, was I able to gain a better understanding of art as a whole. An understanding that allowed my art to develop, and form a more psychological representation.
I wanted to base my work around the psyche/ mind, to incorporate this into both my subject work and constellation, to create a better understanding in the academia of the subject as well as the creative processes involved. I began with looking at physical matter of the brain, microscopic cells. Cells which make up who we are, from looks to personality. I found the notion of chemicals in the brain dictating so much of who we are, very interesting. This led me to research outsider art, a prime example of chemical imbalances producing creativity. Their works represents the mind in a way I hadn’t really seen before, they produced work with such a chaos and emotion it really inspired me to explore my own subconscious. In the form of automatic art making, starting with collagraphs creating shapes and patterns with as little conscious input as possible. I wanted to, in a sense, create a whole person. Inside out, from the body, to the cells which make up our brains, to our conscious and subconscious mind. Representing the feelings we can’t control, from depression to anxiety, and in contrast created drypoint prints, showing humans in their simplest forms without the multitude of feeling and emotions felt on a daily basis. This has been heavily influenced through my dissertation research.
Initially I assumed I knew all the answers to the questions I raised within my dissertation, such as “can a large quantity of people share the same cognitive skill to appreciate art in the same way?” My belief was that society dictated a large quantity of what we believe we feel while looking at a famous work of art, conditioned by those around us to possess similar emotions in response to a painting or a sculpture. But through research into neuroaesthetics, and V S Ramachandran’s 10 principle laws of aesthetic appreciation, in particular, I began to understand art on a new level. With world renowned artists, not just being lucky to gain a mass admirers and respect, but the possibility of certain individuals possessing higher levels of cognitive understanding of what creates a response in the brain. It is this heightened response and the clear link between creativity and illnesses of the mind, whether they be a degenerate brain disorder, or a psychological disorder, and a greater knowledge of what colours/ lines provoke real emotion/ biological responses that I now believe create a great artist. The research I have conducted, has definitely shaped new ideas into how our species perceieve the world. This has demonstrate to me that exploration into others beliefs and theories have limitless potential in regard to understanding humans as a whole.
This begun through an interest into psychology, in particular Freudian theory of the unconscious, (the unconscious being made up of three levels, the conscious, preconscious and the unconscious), each level containing information, from easily accessible in the consciousness, to inaccessible in the unconscious, and the preconscious, being an almost waiting room of thoughts and emotions, waiting to be brough into the conscious. Something my dissertation looks at, in relation to gaining accessed to repressed emotions and motives. This research has led me to be less literal within my practice, to move into the expressionist abstracted form, while trying to incorporate automatism, creating art with as little conscious input as possible. I’ve also gained a greater insight into analysing my own work, understanding the possibilities of the information, both psychologically and biologically, in the marks produced/ colours used. Initially this new style f working felt almost forced, but the more I began to create the easier the work flow became, instinctive I would choose a material/ media and creative. While before, all my work was premeditated, from what I was going to create to what colour and why. To me, this style of creative making can telling us little about a person’s deeper emotions , emotions perhaps too complex to put into a linguistic verbal form, hence demonstrating to myself for the need of art therapy. But not only in an artistic form, but simultaneous in a scientific manner, my dissertation research, has displayed research which has pushed the argument for a more scientific approach for the dissection of art.
Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my dissertation, I believe it has given me invaluable knowledge on creativities place in the brain, in both a biological and psychological sense. Information that I have applied into my work, focusing on creating a deeper psychological meaning, and not making art purely to be aesthetically pleasing, with this aspect I believe to be intuition, with creative people possessing knowledge, perhaps on an unconscious level, what colour combinations, structures and shapes create certain heightened responses within the visual brain. This knowledge has been applied into my own practice, I believe I now possess a much greater understanding of the work I am producing and what it says about myself as an artist.
Enfys Radley 