Interrogating selves : deconstructive strategies in Buddhism and contemporary art

Hughes, Meredith Ann

Interrogating selves : deconstructive strategies in Buddhism and contemporary art

Date

2015

Authors

Hughes, Meredith Ann

Abstract

There is a long history of artistic exchange that endures between European and Asian cultures. In contemporary artistic contexts Buddhism has relevance to a wide range of practitioners but scholarly interest that acknowledges the significance of Buddhist concepts and practices to contemporary art production is relatively recent. This research has integrated studio based artistic development with academic approaches such as cultural history and visual analysis to investigate relationships between Buddhism and art. The nexus of art and Buddhism creates sites that interrogate alternative notions of self and subjectivity. These sites have focused an exploration of devices that characterise subjective interrogation, such as deconstruction, multiplicity, transformation, subjugation, duration, temporality and reflexivity. I have developed a body of artwork, dissertation and exegesis to consider interrogation of the self and subjectivity through numerous modes of enquiry that incorporate broad visual, technical and conceptual resources. I have conceptualised my approach with a foundational Buddhist concept, dependent arising, meaning briefly, the interdependence of all things, and this concept has provided a framework to consider visual, technical and conceptual resources. These resources include traditional textile processes (embroidery, quilting striped fabrics, applique, printing and heat press), calm abiding and analytical meditative techniques from Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, interrogative devices that emerged with French Surrealism and are evident within the trajectory of Western art from the 1960's onward, contemporary installation theory and durational approaches that characterise performance work by artists such as Tehching Hseih. Outcomes of the research contribute to artistic and scholarly fields that recognise the intersection of Buddhist and artistic concepts and practices as mutually illuminating in relation to engagement with alternative concepts of self. When considered through their common interrogative devices new insights are gleaned that enlarge the emerging interest in the importance of Buddhism to Western art.