7.4.21 Why a cage?
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As part of my research at Real Space, after much discussion and a thorough risk assessment, and with the support of Poppy Clover, Dave Tinkham, Si Butler and Ross Bennett, I was able to construct a large, steel cage in the gallery. It’s made out of fencing panels, secured with cable ties. Sadly, though, we were only able to build it a couple of days before the end of Real Space, which meant that I only had 2 days to experiment with hanging my work in it. Being able to rebuild this structure in The Street would mean that I could continue my research and trial various other installation ideas. My work would also be seen by a wider audience, as The Street is the central core of the campus, so the cage could be viewed whenever the campus is open. Obviously, as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions, we have had extremely limited opportunities to show or view art in a physical space for over a year and I’m sure that many of the staff and students will welcome the chance to see my art in a real space. Also, very sadly, none of my academic tutors were able to see my work installed in the cage during Real Space. If I’m able to continue working with the cage in The Street, I sincerely hope that by then they will be able to experience it in reality rather than just through images on a screen. Their critique of my work will enable me to develop my research further.
For me, the cage is a frame, a discrete and boundaried space. It’s ambivalent; it can be about protection or restraint, or both. Louise Bourgeois created over 60 cage-like Cells to frame her work; ‘Each Cell, is a world; a stage set to either be contained in, journeyed through, peeked voyeuristically into, or be excluded from’ (Waters, 2016). Like Bourgeois, for me the cage becomes ‘both prison and refuge’ (Ibid).
Psychoanalyst, Marion Milner discusses the importance of setting up what she calls an ‘analytic frame’ for therapy. She suggests that this ‘frame marks off a different kind of reality - that which is within it and that which is without it; it also marks a special kind of reality … it is the existence of this frame which makes possible the full development of … creative illusion' (in Pines, 1981). Over the couple of days that I was able to install my work in the cage at Real Space, it became very clear that the cage will dramatically change the way my work is perceived. I feel that my work needs a frame of this kind, to enhance the elements of ‘creative illusion’.
Continuing the discussion about the analytic frame, psychotherapist Robert Young suggests that ‘It is a room — a physical setting. It is a set of conventions about how one behaves. It is a state of mind — a mental space. It is all of these at once and something more, something ineffable. It has been described as a facilitating environment and as a container. It needs to be a safe enough place … to speak about things which are too painful or taboo or embarrassing to speak about elsewhere’ (no date). My work, like Bourgeois’, is ‘never about what’s outside, but always the warped, shape-shifting unpredictability of (the) interior world’ (Waters, 2016). Using the analogy of the analytic frame feels appropriate to my current research as my practice makes public things that are normally private and provokes a wide range of conflicting responses.
Pines, M., (1981) The Frame of Reference of Group Psychotherapy, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 31:3, 275-285, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.1981.11491707
Young, R. (no date) The analytic frame, abstinence and acting out Available at: http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_nature/papers/pap110h.html(Accessed: 23 March 2021)
For me, the cage is a frame, a discrete and boundaried space. It’s ambivalent; it can be about protection or restraint, or both. Louise Bourgeois created over 60 cage-like Cells to frame her work; ‘Each Cell, is a world; a stage set to either be contained in, journeyed through, peeked voyeuristically into, or be excluded from’ (Waters, 2016). Like Bourgeois, for me the cage becomes ‘both prison and refuge’ (Ibid).
Psychoanalyst, Marion Milner discusses the importance of setting up what she calls an ‘analytic frame’ for therapy. She suggests that this ‘frame marks off a different kind of reality - that which is within it and that which is without it; it also marks a special kind of reality … it is the existence of this frame which makes possible the full development of … creative illusion' (in Pines, 1981). Over the couple of days that I was able to install my work in the cage at Real Space, it became very clear that the cage will dramatically change the way my work is perceived. I feel that my work needs a frame of this kind, to enhance the elements of ‘creative illusion’.
Continuing the discussion about the analytic frame, psychotherapist Robert Young suggests that ‘It is a room — a physical setting. It is a set of conventions about how one behaves. It is a state of mind — a mental space. It is all of these at once and something more, something ineffable. It has been described as a facilitating environment and as a container. It needs to be a safe enough place … to speak about things which are too painful or taboo or embarrassing to speak about elsewhere’ (no date). My work, like Bourgeois’, is ‘never about what’s outside, but always the warped, shape-shifting unpredictability of (the) interior world’ (Waters, 2016). Using the analogy of the analytic frame feels appropriate to my current research as my practice makes public things that are normally private and provokes a wide range of conflicting responses.
Pines, M., (1981) The Frame of Reference of Group Psychotherapy, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 31:3, 275-285, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.1981.11491707
Young, R. (no date) The analytic frame, abstinence and acting out Available at: http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_nature/papers/pap110h.html(Accessed: 23 March 2021)