What have I looked at?
An example of proximity and defamiliarization is found with another example of Wim Delvoye’s works called ‘Sybille II. The term proximity means nearest and also means approximate and is used as an artistic term for making microscopic images or fragments taken from the original context. The example of Sybille II is a close up movie that shows fragment surfaces of human skin with bursting blackheads and spots. Even though this piece of work is a close up and comes under the abject, it is still an example of the defamiliar.
How does proximity and defamiliarization relate to my own work?
I look into this example of Wim’s work because defamiliarization presents to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar.
In my own English and Chinese illness sculpture, it is defamiliar in a way that the Chinese toilet is almost alien to English people and the fact that my illness experience is presented in a mere fragment from its original scene just like Wim’s close ups. the toilet is the only object to be lifted out of the original Chinese scene to represent myself in a defamiliar way in which the cracked bricks become my body going wrong instead of using my actual self.
So even though my work is not as abject as Wim Delvoye’s movie, my work is still defamiliar in a way that it presents a fragment of my original experience just like Delvoye’s close-ups in his movie.
