A recent trip to the Whitechapel First Thursday Exhibitions highlighted for me, the importance of how art works are displayed. It got me thinking about the degree show and how I might display my work. I will have paintings, and sculptures, how will they all hang together? Should I even try to use them all?
The word canvas has so many possibilities. Should I hang it as a self-portrait, of public face and private pain? Should I take it off the frame and use it as a quilt on a bed? Should I suspend it from the ceiling so it can be walked around? Should I use lights behind it, to illuminate the words?
I guess the answer to all these questions is another question. What am I trying to say, and how can I make the most impact when saying it?
The First Thursday trip was closely followed by another trip to London, this time to see the Marlene Dumas exhibition in Tate Modern. I knew nothing much about her work but some people had said that my painting of the eyes reminded them of her work, so I thought I should take a look. The display called Rejects, had the most impact on me. The wall was filled with portrait heads.
“These ink and graphite images began with images the artist had discarded from another work. It reminded Dumas of the so called reject stores in South Africa where clothes with imperfections were sold. By bringing these rejects together and making visible the artistic process of selection and judgement Dumas was, maybe, making a comment on the way that society accepts some and excludes others. “Excerpt from the Room Guide for the Marlene Dumas exhibition Image as Burden, at Tate Modern.
“Art is not a mirror. Art is a translation of that which you do not know” Marlene Dumas (2003)
Taken from the Room Guide for Image as Burden, at Tate Modern, as are the following images:
Cover Page: Image as Burden, Room Guide: (2015)
Marlene Dumas: Rejects: (2015)
The images were disturbing to look at and it reminded me of how uncomfortable I felt looking at my ‘eyes’ picture and maybe that is the point. I realised that in my desire to make an aesthetically pleasing image, I have been trying to make what happened to me acceptable to myself by trying to pretty it up. Why am I doing that? The sexual abuse of a child is not pretty, it is not acceptable. I should be trying to show the real face of it; the emotionally destructive, guilt- ridden, shame burdened truth of it.
