Painting, recognition and the unstable image

Submission note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts (Research) to the School of Humanities, College of the Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

The research investigates how recognition and the intended or apprehended meaning of images can be limited or disrupted by placing paintings in states of instability. When talking of instability and the unstable image I refer to the state of oscillation where images are uncertain and vibrate at a point where meaning and immutability are challenged. I examine my work in relation to Henri Bergson’s concept of pure memory and memory‐image, Gilles Deleuze concepts of a commonsense approach to recognition or affective response to the image, in painting, and Dario Gamboni’s ideas of potential images. This research is grounded in the more general question of how painting is situated in the wider field of art practice. The scope of the investigation includes referencing artists who engage with ambiguity, contingency and memory in ways that challenge the interpretation of paintings. During the course of the project the following three aspects have arisen as a way of researching whether the image can be destabilised by: using the method of display to encourage a different reading to what a painting may initially suggest; working between the practices of painting and photography with the aim of confusing both the recognition of the image and the form of its appearance, and, using painterly marks to obscure the recognised, objective painted image, to test how this process affects meaning. Many of my works are based on photographic material woven with recalled incidents, and embellished with non‐related references or figments of imagination. My intent with this aspect of the investigation is to test the boundaries of comprehension, recognition and affect associated with the work. I am exploring how I can interfere with this engagement with a work by using any of the above strategies.