Interweaving mythology and psychogeography in the hope of finding an intersection where personal myth can be used for autobiographical illustrative practice.
Following on from last term, I continue to be interested in creating work which lands anywhere in between a spectrum of observational to autobiographical illustration and am keen to explore tangents and alternative routes.
Additionally, I have an interest in folklore, and I would like to delve into those surrounding my home county of Norfolk. My past is heavily rooted in this area, as is my ancestry. I am always intrigued by the roots of a thing, whether they be etymological, folkloric, historic.
For me, I feel a connection to the place, which is not just through friends and family, but also with the topography of the area.
I would like to pull on the thread connecting mythology and psychogeography (but I am not sure psychogeography is yet the accurate word for what I’m seeking.)
It is my hope that by balancing the fact and the fiction throughout this research, I will find a juncture at which I can see new processes for my practice.
Connected Creatives:
“How do different places make us feel and behave? The term psychogeography was invented by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955 in order to explore this. Inspired by the French nineteenth century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur – an urban wanderer – Debord suggested playful and inventive ways of navigating the urban environment in order to examine its architecture and spaces.“
“As a young man, Spilliaert was plagued by a stomach condition that left him in agony and unable to sleep. To take his mind off it, he would wander the empty streets of Ostend after dark and pace along the seafront. He developed a love of walking and these solitary, silent hours not only helped him grapple with life’s big questions, but also informed his art in the decades to come.”
Not connected to psychogeography, but I find the work of Spilliaert highly autobiographic, and this is predominantly rooted in the location of his works.
They remind me of walking along the coastal paths at night by myself. Not in Belgium but by the same sea, a similar age to the artist, 100 years into the future.
Dzama’s work is influenced by “native mythology, Inuit art, Dante’s Divine Comedy, medieval paintings, and American folklore … the work of William Blake, Francisco de Goya, Sandro Botticelli, and James Ensor, among others.”
I would like to, if possible, how Dzama blends the above influences he has into his artwork into current topical issues.
“They can’t transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay”
Some potential elements to touch upon in the critical publication:
- What is a myth and how does it manifest?
- Finding examples of where topography has turned a truth into a legend.
- Discovering and dissecting choice legends from the Norfolk area, e.g. “Black Shuck
- … As well as finding some connected to the land ie: the climate, the contours, the fertility of the ground etc.
- Psychogeography/ flânerie: a male dominated realm. Finding some alternative lenses, such as female and indigenous artwork.
- Jung’s theory on ‘personal myth’.