Examining illness as a metaphor through an early and recent work of Yayoi Kusama and the impact it has on the spectator
Examine a body art/live art practitioner in depth, using two pieces of their work as case studies. Using these pieces, contextualize the artist within the history of body-based/ live art performance
This essay will explore illness as a metaphor, something that is representative or symbolic, within Yayoi Kusama’s work and the way in which it enables the spectator to reflect, along with illuminating how we can learn through, and from, metaphors. Kusama’s works are an expression of her mental illness and the traumas she faced as a child, through the way in which she ‘manages’ and releases her energy. Her works enable the spectator …show more content…
To not be able to place Kusama’s work does not cause it to lose significance, it can be placed within many different contexts, whether it causes controversy or appreciation. This may be due to the narcissistic nature, in which “the self turns itself inside-out … projecting its internal structures of identification and desire outwards. Thus, narcissism interconnects the internal and external self as well as the self as the other” (Jones, 1998, 46). Perhaps Kusama’s willingness and dedication to be honest and focused on her emotions and experiences cause its lasting power. Kusama’s narcissism links to the metaphor of illness she presents, as Vergine comments “projection expels an internal menace that has been created by the pressure of an intolerable impulse and thus is transformed into an external menace that can be more easily handled” (Vergine in Jones, 47). Is this suggesting illness as a metaphor portrays people that are selfish or …show more content…
Appearance is real […] Appearance can never be destroyed by ‘reality’, but only be replaced by other appearances […] so Goffman wrote about glimpses, semblances, veneers, surfaces, illusions, images, shells and acts”, “in everyday life things are really as they seem to be; but “how they seem to be” is ever changing” (Goffman in Schechner, 2006,
Examine a body art/live art practitioner in depth, using two pieces of their work as case studies. Using these pieces, contextualize the artist within the history of body-based/ live art performance
This essay will explore illness as a metaphor, something that is representative or symbolic, within Yayoi Kusama’s work and the way in which it enables the spectator to reflect, along with illuminating how we can learn through, and from, metaphors. Kusama’s works are an expression of her mental illness and the traumas she faced as a child, through the way in which she ‘manages’ and releases her energy. Her works enable the spectator …show more content…
To not be able to place Kusama’s work does not cause it to lose significance, it can be placed within many different contexts, whether it causes controversy or appreciation. This may be due to the narcissistic nature, in which “the self turns itself inside-out … projecting its internal structures of identification and desire outwards. Thus, narcissism interconnects the internal and external self as well as the self as the other” (Jones, 1998, 46). Perhaps Kusama’s willingness and dedication to be honest and focused on her emotions and experiences cause its lasting power. Kusama’s narcissism links to the metaphor of illness she presents, as Vergine comments “projection expels an internal menace that has been created by the pressure of an intolerable impulse and thus is transformed into an external menace that can be more easily handled” (Vergine in Jones, 47). Is this suggesting illness as a metaphor portrays people that are selfish or …show more content…
Appearance is real […] Appearance can never be destroyed by ‘reality’, but only be replaced by other appearances […] so Goffman wrote about glimpses, semblances, veneers, surfaces, illusions, images, shells and acts”, “in everyday life things are really as they seem to be; but “how they seem to be” is ever changing” (Goffman in Schechner, 2006,