https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/100 Wed, 01 Nov 2017 14:53:14 GMT 2017-11-01T14:53:14Z https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/218 Permanent light green, the stumblebum and the show-off: the historical sublime, Philip Guston and Sophie Calle Mullan, Christina This thesis examines historical and philosophical enquiries into the notion of the Sublime. It looks at works such as Edmund Burke’s ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful’ and Jean François Lyotard’s ‘Analytic of the Sublime’ to understand its role in the historical discourse. By later applying their theories to the practice and analysis of works by American artist Philip Guston and French artist Sophie Calle, the research demonstrates the relevance of the sublime in contemporary art. At a certain point in history we see a division between what we call experiences of the sublime and the discourse of the sublime. The identification of this divide means that we can categorise the experience and identify its signifiers. Where it was previously associated with the natural world and God, it now comes to represent the ability of mankind to comprehend totality and the infinite. It also becomes twinned with ideas of social empathy and civic/political agency. This research demonstrates the importance of that realisation and proposes that without it, an evolution of the sublime would not have been possible. The thesis also discusses the emergence of a contemporary discourse on sublimity. Having looked at the philosophical and historical treatises, it examines its resurgence in 1950s Abstract Expressionism. It argues for its place in contemporary art, away from the Romantic empathetic, awe-inspired ideals of the eighteenth century or the ‘transcendent,’ shapeless forms of the abstract. It also looks at the role of the ‘ready-made techno sciences’ and their impact on the sublime. Finally it deals with the idea of the ‘Other’ and the notion of the ‘Void’ – definitions commonly prescribed when dealing with twentieth century ideas of sublimity and asks if the philosophy of the modern sublime can only be defined through paradox and conflict. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/218 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/217 In search of a language textile and text in contemporary women's art O’Mahony, Sarah Ann This research uses the textile/text axis concept as a conceptual tool to investigate the role of textile and text in contemporary women’s art practice and theorizing, investigating textile as a largely hitherto unacknowledged element in women’s art practice of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Textile and text share a common etymological root, from the Latin textere to weave, textus a fabric. The thesis illuminates the pathways whereby textile and text played an important role in women reclaiming a speaking voice as creators of culture and signification during a revolutionary period of renewal in women’s cultural contribution and positioning. The methodological approach used in the research consisted of a comprehensive literature review, the compilation of an inventory of relevant women artists, developing a classificatory system differentiating types of approaches, concerns and concepts underpinning women’s art practice vis a vis the textile/text axis and a series of three in-depth case studies of artists Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois and Faith Ringgold. The thesis points to the fact that contemporary women artists and theorists have rounded their art practice and aesthetic discourse in textile as prime visual metaphor and signifier, turning towards the ancient language of textile not merely to reclaim a speaking voice but to occupy a ground breaking locus of signification and representation in contemporary culture. The textile/text axis facilitated women artists in powerfully countering a culturally inscribed status of Lacanian ‘no-woman’ (a position of abjection, absence and lack in the phallocentric symbolic). Turning towards a language of aeons, textile as fertile wellspring, the thesis identifies the methodologies and strategies whereby women artists have inserted their webs of subjectivities and deepest concerns into the records and discourses of contemporary culture. Presenting an anatomy of the textile/text axis, the thesis identifies nine component elements manifesting in contemporary women’s aesthetic practice and discourse. In this cultural renaissance, the textile/text axis, the thesis suggests, served as a complex lexicon, a system of labyrinthine references and signification, a site of layered meanings and ambiguities, a body proxy and a corporeal cartography, facilitating a revolution in women’s aesthetic praxis. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/217 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/216 An Investigation into Irish State patronage of the visual arts. O’Reilly, Rona The focus of this research is in ascertaining how and why the Irish state patronises the visual arts. The framework that the state puts in place for the support of the arts influences the creation of art. The initial standpoint from which to evaluate the system is founded on the belief that art is of social good. The second source of belief is in the necessity for an autonomous setting in which it can be created. These two beliefs underpin state patronage of the arts in contemporary society. Therefore they have to be examined carefully in order to see if they hold up. This requires an investigation into the formation of value. This is undertaken by looking into the social development of western society and its influence on the placement of arts value. Establishing how arts value to society is defined provides a means by which to investigate the manner in which the state patronises the visual arts. Two case studies provide the evidence in how the state supports the arts and why it chooses to do so. The Irish Museum of Modem Art is used as an example of the state’s role in the maintenance of the canon of art. The second case study looks at the work being done by Breaking Ground. Breaking Ground is an extensive art project as an element of the regeneration process happening in Ballymun funded by the state. It provides and insight into how the state utilises art in the unification of a social group. Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/216 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/215 What value can be attached to a concept of mystery and has it a place in contemporary Western culture? Peterson-Harkin, Anne The idea for this thesis arose from a chain of reactions first set in motion by a particular experience. In keeping with the contemporary need to deconstruct every phenomenon it seemed important to analyse this experience in the hope of a satisfactory explanation. The experience referred to is the aesthetic experience provoked by works of art. The plan for the thesis involved trying to establish whether the aesthetic experience is unique and individual, or whether it is one that is experienced universally. Each question that arises in the course of this exploration promotes a dialectical reaction. I rely on the history of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline to supply the answers. This study concentrates on the efforts by philosophers and critical theorists to understand the tensions between the empirical and the emotional, the individual and the universal responses to the sociological, political and material conditions that prevail and are expressed through the medium of art. What I found is that the history of aesthetics is full of contradictory evidence and cannot provide a dogmatic solution to the questions posed. In fact what is indicated is that the mystery that attaches to the aesthetic experience is one that can also apply to the spiritual or transcendent experience. The aim of this thesis is to support the contribution of visual art in the spiritual well being of human development and supports the uniqueness of the evaluation and aesthetic judgement by the individual of a work of art. I suggest that mystery will continue to be of value in the holistic development of human beings and this mystery can be expressed through visual art. Furthermore, this thesis might suggest that what could be looked at is whether a work of art may be redemptive in its affect and offset the current decline in affective religious practice. Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT https://research.thea.ie/handle/20.500.12065/215 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z