8.9.20 To name or leave nameless?
I have been mulling over whether or not to give my series of sculptures a title. I did think about calling them ‘Untitled’ as an homage to the struggle amongst the graduating to agree of a name of the 2020 online degree. However, I feel that names and titles are important, as they can offer a context to the viewer. Tim asked me about it in the crit yesterday and I know from other conversations I’ve had with him that he is certainly one viewer who feels he needs and wants clues. I too often find a title useful I like to look and read a work of art first and then look at the title. It often adds understanding.
Looking again at Frankenstein, I was interested in the fact that the creature is deliberately nameless and referred to as ‘it’ rather than ‘him’ throughout the novel. This becomes a significant part of his ‘othering’, and is what adds to the perception of it/ him as a monster. (Engelbert, 2018) So should I name my Frankenstein’s monsters? Or should I make them other? As they are supposedly a self portrait, all three of them, it makes me feel that I should make them more me/less other by naming them.
The language of preferred pronouns and non binary sexuality has some place in this work too as I am choosing to refer to myself as they/them!
So, some of the ideas I’ve thought of so far are:
My Frankenstein’s monsters
Me myself I (too Joan Armatrading?)
A question of balance (Too Moody Blues?)
All of me (Too John Legend?)
Multiple selves
Parts of me
The others
Self and other
Body parts
Making them me
Me in the making
Body boundary balance
I’m sure there will be more ideas. My favourite so far is ‘Parts of me’ but I have another body of work with that title. Is that a problem? I don’t think so, but as Christian Boltanski suggests, maybe I only have one idea, which I will investigate for the rest of my life?
And maybe I won’t name them yet. And maybe their name will change as time passes. That has happened with some of my other works. It has always interested me that some people choose not to name their new born baby until they have met them and have got to know them, at least a bit.
Englebert, H. (2018) ‘The other’ in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Available at: https://www.grin.com/document/457176 (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Sampson, F. (2018) Frankenstein: an all too human monster Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/46233f88-1d4a-11e8-a748-5da7d696ccab (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin
I have been mulling over whether or not to give my series of sculptures a title. I did think about calling them ‘Untitled’ as an homage to the struggle amongst the graduating to agree of a name of the 2020 online degree. However, I feel that names and titles are important, as they can offer a context to the viewer. Tim asked me about it in the crit yesterday and I know from other conversations I’ve had with him that he is certainly one viewer who feels he needs and wants clues. I too often find a title useful I like to look and read a work of art first and then look at the title. It often adds understanding.
Looking again at Frankenstein, I was interested in the fact that the creature is deliberately nameless and referred to as ‘it’ rather than ‘him’ throughout the novel. This becomes a significant part of his ‘othering’, and is what adds to the perception of it/ him as a monster. (Engelbert, 2018) So should I name my Frankenstein’s monsters? Or should I make them other? As they are supposedly a self portrait, all three of them, it makes me feel that I should make them more me/less other by naming them.
The language of preferred pronouns and non binary sexuality has some place in this work too as I am choosing to refer to myself as they/them!
So, some of the ideas I’ve thought of so far are:
My Frankenstein’s monsters
Me myself I (too Joan Armatrading?)
A question of balance (Too Moody Blues?)
All of me (Too John Legend?)
Multiple selves
Parts of me
The others
Self and other
Body parts
Making them me
Me in the making
Body boundary balance
I’m sure there will be more ideas. My favourite so far is ‘Parts of me’ but I have another body of work with that title. Is that a problem? I don’t think so, but as Christian Boltanski suggests, maybe I only have one idea, which I will investigate for the rest of my life?
And maybe I won’t name them yet. And maybe their name will change as time passes. That has happened with some of my other works. It has always interested me that some people choose not to name their new born baby until they have met them and have got to know them, at least a bit.
Englebert, H. (2018) ‘The other’ in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Available at: https://www.grin.com/document/457176 (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Sampson, F. (2018) Frankenstein: an all too human monster Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/46233f88-1d4a-11e8-a748-5da7d696ccab (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin