Essay by Christina Rankin for Contextualising Practice
This essay explores the connections between textile, memory, and trauma, focusing on how my artwork (pictured in Figure 1) Uniform incorporates these themes both individually and in conjunction. When utilised in art-making, textile offers itself as agent for linking elements (Dormor 2020) in a more tactile manner, which Crosbie (2022:237) states can ‘open the door to various types of memory that are not just restricted to visual recollection’. I will delve into topics such as autobiographical narratives, the affective representation of trauma, and methods of representing memory to demonstrate how the use of textile and subtractive painting methods can enhance and unite each of these concepts.
[acrylic, airbrush, and fabric on 40cm x 50cm stretched canvas]
Autobiography is a multifaceted concept that assumes a diverse variety of forms within media and our everyday lives (Gibbons 2008). One of these forms which autobiography can be represented through is art, in both contemporary and historical contexts. Since memory is inherently connected to autobiographical narratives in art, I aim to delve deeper into autobiography as a means of both self-understanding and representing memory. Gibbons (2008:14) generally defines autobiographical art as ‘self-images that depart from traditional portrait formats’, which are ‘different not only in the introduction of the narrative but also because they introduce an element of retrospection and historicisation’. This element of retrospection involves engaging in a process of reworking the past as a means of understanding the self in its larger context (Gibbons 2008). While actively reflecting on one’s personal history is a method of introspection for creating autobiographical narratives, it also brings to light subconscious aspects, such as our culture and political themes, as the personal experiences of each artist often intersect with political subject matter. Conway (2011) contends that cultural history patterns form a sort of history of our understanding of the self, and suggests that our culture gives us an inner script by which we can live our lives. This notion assists in having a more informed critical awareness in relation to the role of personal cultural history when discussing and creating autobiographical narratives (Flood 2008).
Both personal history and cultural personal history are highlighted in my work, and through taking an autobiographical approach, I had moments of self-understanding about my schooling experience. The cultural personal history is highlighted in my work through the figures depicted wearing uniforms, which indicates my upbringing in a country that requires uniforms for most schools. The more individual history explored in my work is demonstrated by the fabric bow included which originates from my former school dress. This inclusion of such a personal piece of fabric enhances my individual history associated with the narrative being explored in the piece. Thus, the interplay of personal and cultural histories within autobiographical art allows for a richer, more nuanced exploration of the self.
There is a complex relationship between trauma, affect, place, and memory which intertwine when attempting to represent trauma in art. Some consider trauma to be ‘defined by its resistance to representation’ (Werner 2020:61), which is why affect theory is an important concept to introduce when discussing trauma in art-making. Tumarkin (2005:13) refers to trauma not as a medical condition but as ‘an ongoing response that affects people at their very core’, which highlights this affective feeling associated with traumatic memories. This feeling is associated with place as well, which Tumarkin (2005:13) coins these sites of trauma as ‘traumascapes’, which are ‘a distinctive category of place, transformed physically and psychically by suffering’. While Tumarkin refers to a wider experience of trauma in geographical regions which have endured war or conflict, I am adapting the essence of this term to refer to a personal site which has personal traumatic connotations. This feeling evoked from traumascapes, memories, and art can be described as affect, which ‘is a collective term that encompasses both emotions and feelings’ as outlined by Best (2011:5). When used in art that explores themes of trauma, affect shifts the focus from merely visually representing these events and instead aims to evoke a real-time somatic experience (Bennett 2005). Moving toward a practice that treats the event of abuse as an open artistic inquiry, rather than a concluded past event, can allow the artist to connect with this affective response, and therefore produce this affective encounter with the artwork in the present (Bennett 2005).
This ability to step into trauma in this way as an artist can also act as a means of processing these events. Artist Louise Bourgeois speaks on this in regards to her practice, stating that ‘What interests me is the conquering of the fear’ (Bourgeois 1998) that she is exploring in her work. For Bourgeois, art is the medium through which she reconciles and overcomes a painful and imperfect past (Gibbons 2008). While not overtly depicted, the traumascape represented in Figure 1 is the site of the school. Although no details of the site are illustrated, it can be assumed by the figures standing in line and clothed in their school uniform that this is their location. By choosing to subtract these details, and instead leaving these associations to the viewer, I aimed to evoke this affective sensation and to provoke thought about the connotations suggested by the school uniform. My decision to use a limited colour palette consisting of predominantly pink also aimed to trigger this affective experience, by prompting the viewer to explore their associations with this colour, which is typically related to women. Overall, affect plays a significant role in representing trauma, and by utilising affect, the artist can make the viewer an active participant in interpreting and experiencing the emotional landscape of the artwork.
‘The function of memory is not only to recall, reconstitute or reconcile the past but also to construct and represent the present’ Gibbons (2008:16).
Memory is a broad topic that encompasses several sub-topics, including (but not limited to) remembering, forgetting, core memories, and memories that are obscured or concealed by our subconscious. It is important to note the difficulty in summarising memory is due to the vast amount of differentiating opinions and theories regarding memory. In relation to the representation of memory in my work Uniform, I will be focusing on absence, presence, and the process of remembering. A key problem when representing the past is memory’s lack of reliability, which is fundamentally challenged by the act of forgetting (Ricœur 2004). This unreliable aspect of memory is linked to the idea of presence and absence. The interplay between presence and absence is fundamental to how the past is represented, and this dynamic is further complicated by the inherent sense of distance in memories, setting them apart from the mere absence of an image, which memory seeks to depict or simulate (Ricœur 2004).
Another way to represent this sense of absence and presence is through exploring the notion of ambiguity in relation to memory. Marr (2023:12) states that ‘ambiguity develops through the contact of past and present, and notions such as virtual and actual representation, and of absence and presence’, and contends that these considerations when aiming to represent memories ‘add to this feeling of ambiguity within memory’. This idea of the ambiguity of memories relates to the accuracy of recollecting timelines from memory as well, particularly when attempting to recover traumatic memories. Crosbie (2022:31) suggests that the recovery of these memories ‘cannot operate on the assumption that memory is linear and neatly organised into sequential periods of time between past and present’. This idea is further supported by Psychoanalyst Philip Bromberg’s theory that an organised archive of memory is replaced by:
‘…the interplay between an individual’s capacity to access and cognitively process dissociated perceptual experience (past and present) and his felt vulnerability to potential traumatic disruption of his ongoing feeling of selfhood’ (Bromberg 1993:150).
This highlights how many factors can interfere with the accuracy of recalling memories, and therefore the challenge of representing memories in an artistic practice. This is why I have chosen to take a reductive/subtractive approach to the memories depicted in my work Uniform. In Gibbons’ book Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and Remembrance, the author analyses works that employ a similar approach to conveying memory. Gibbons (2008:34) describes how ‘everything is stripped down to the surface details and effects, which are robbed of the expressivity and specificity of their original colour and original materiality’. This reductive technique also allows viewers to create their own interpretations or associations with themes in the work, through their ‘own memory, imagination, and knowledge of social and cultural history’ (Gibbons 2008:34). By choosing to subtract additional elements in my work such as using an accurate colour palette, portraying a representation of background, using refined methods of painting to achieve realism, or including identifying details of each student, I have created this sense of ambiguity in relation to the memory represented in the work, which viewers can also attach personal interpretation to. Furthermore, I have utilised subtraction to demonstrate the ambiguity of memory, along with the problematics of the process of remembering. I outline the importance of absence and presence and discuss the ways in which absence plays a role in conveying memory in my work. However, I will proceed to discuss the role of presence, in the form of an object associated with memory.
‘Textile is an ambiguous concept. It is material, it is concept, it is language, it is metaphor.’ (Dormor 2020:1)
Personal objects, including textile objects, can hold strong associations to memory, whether it be sentimental or traumatic. According to Dormor (2020:8) ‘textile, as material both physically and culturally, has been shown to hold the possibility of becoming imbued with memories’. Textile can serve as a reminder of the past since its materiality ‘acts as a physical memory of the original form’ (Marr 2023:57). The textile from my uniform worn throughout my schooling serves as a tactile, tangible version of my memories from this period in my life. Simon Crosbie’s PhD thesis Trauma, Dissociation and the Boarding School Experience discusses his use of textile from his childhood in art-making, and how he has ‘woven personal narrative into material memory’ (Crosbie 2022:132). He describes textile ‘as a means of articulating, and in some cases, recovering memory’, and mentions how ‘the tactile existence of these materials in childhood memory was revisited in their handling in the making of each artwork’ (Crosbie 2022:237). This resonates with the memories triggered by the sensory experience of revisiting my former school uniform. Therefore, by including this tactile form of memory in an artwork, it transforms the experience for not merely the viewer, but for the artist as well.
However, my work Uniform only features a single strip of fabric, rather than my entire school dress. Repurposing it places new meanings upon it through ‘the transformation of recycled material into new fabric forms that are reflective and intimate and imbued with past associations’ (Marr 2023:36). By repurposing personally significant textile, my work embodies a sense of personal history while remaining sufficiently ambiguous to serve as a symbol of these themes.
While textile holds memories of personal significance, its sensory element can also act as a symbol to the viewer who has no personal associations with the fabric. Collier (2011:77) states that ‘reality comes to us through our senses’, and that over time, ‘we create “frames” of reality’, which provide simplified ways to process this sensory information. These frames of reality correlate with the perception of objects through symbol and metaphor (Collier 2011). Symbols and metaphors are so familiar that we generally do not require a deep understanding of their origins to grasp their meaning or intent (Collier 2011). The inclusion of textile from my school uniform illustrates this, capturing a sense of history and personal connection while remaining symbolic enough to evoke broader ideas of schooling and memory. Ultimately, when used in combination with methods of art-making such as painting, textile is transformative in nature and forms a symbolic language that enhances the narrative of memory in the work by adding a tactile representation of this memory.
All things considered, the combination of textile and subtractive methods of painting are effective strategies for conveying personal memory and trauma. Autobiographical art-making deepens the artist’s self-understanding, along with evoking collective cultural memories and interpretations from the viewer. Likewise, real-time affective responses further engage viewers when interpreting the site of trauma in the artwork, as well as allowing the artist to process this trauma. When depicting memory through art-making, the use of absence communicates the unreliable tendencies of memory. Finally, by including textile in an artwork, all of these topics explored can be unified and symbolised by incorporating a tactile relic of memory. The exploration of these themes not only enhances the understanding of my personal history but also highlights textile’s capacity to expand and transform an artwork when aiming to convey narratives of memory and trauma in art.
References
Bennett J (2005) Empathic Vision: Affect, Trauma, and Contemporary Art, Stanford University Press, doi: 10.1515/9781503625006.
Best S (2011) Visualising feeling: Affect and the feminine avant-garde, Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
Bourgeois L (1998) Destruction of the Father / Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923-1997, Bernadac M L and Obrist H U (eds) MIT Press, Massachusetts.
Bromberg P M (1993) ‘Shadow and substance: A relational perspective on clinical process’, Psychoanalytic psychology, 10(2): 147-168, doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079464
Collier A F (2011) Using Textile Arts and Handcrafts in Therapy with Women: Weaving Lives Back Together, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London.
Conway J K (2011) When Memory Speaks: Exploring the Art of Autobiography, Vintage, New York.
Crosbie S (2022) Trauma, Dissociation and the Boarding School Experience [PhD thesis], RMIT University, accessed 25 May 2024. https://www.bss-support.org.uk/resources/peter-crosbie-2022-trauma-dissociation-and-the-boarding-school-experience-rmit-university-melbourne-phd-thesis/
Dormor C (2020) A Philosophy of Textile, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, doi: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474263238
Flood A (2014) Common Threads: A Discursive Text Narrating Ideas of Memory and Artistic Identity, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle.
Gibbons J (2008) Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and Remembrance, I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, London.
Marr R (2023) Drawing the object- a metaphor for and re-forming of memory [master’s thesis], University of Tasmania, accessed 25 May 2024. https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Drawing_the_object-a_metaphor_for_and_re-forming_of_memory/23235788
Ricœur P (2004) Memory, History, Forgetting, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Tumarkin M (2005) Traumascapes: the power and fate of places transformed by tragedy, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne.
Werner A (2020) Let Them Haunt Us: How Contemporary Aesthetics Challenge Trauma as the Unrepresentable, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, doi: 10.14361/9783839450468