Leonie Watson

Collecting the Self: Painting and the Ambiguous Body Leonie Watson

What is the relationship between the body and theself? How are we to represent a self that isidentified by and yet no longer seems bounded by thebody envelope"? This study traces the evolution ofnotions of the self in art practice and looks atrecent attempts to picture a new kind of body/self: aself that is multiple a locus or meeting place ofdesires beliefs language forms and histories. Thisself is extended by technology which dissolvesboundaries of scale of inside and outside. What isproposed is a body/self that is always in parts andalways in process continually fragmenting yetrecombining to find moments of wholeness. These newkinds of bodies - fragmented dispersed reassembled- enable us to see ourselves as we feel... multiplein flux and yet held together by a desire forwholeness - however transitory and contingent. Thisbook will be of interest to theorists in the visualarts and humanities as well as to arts practitionerscurators and collectors." a locus or meeting place ofdesires beliefs language forms and histories. Thisself is extended by technology which dissolvesboundaries of scale of inside and outside. What isproposed is a body/self that is always in parts andalways in process continually fragmenting yetrecombining to find moments of wholeness. These newkinds of bodies - fragmented dispersed reassembled- enable us to see ourselves as we feel... multiplein flux and yet held together by a desire forwholeness - however transitory and contingent. Thisbook will be of interest to theorists in the visualarts and humanities as well as to arts practitionerscurators and collectors."