1. RESEARCH TITLE

Photographs of Exile and Memory: melancholic self-portraits in diptych form

2. A PERSONAL STATEMENT

I was born and grew up in the Island of Taiwan but was forced by several reasons to live outside my homeland. Since I graduated from University, the feeling of exile has intensified. For this reason, I want to particularly explore images that represent and interpret my own loss/nostalgia living away from family and homeland since 1985 and experiments in living abroad. I have visualised my own understanding and impressions of exile and memory since 1997 in my artworks. My exploration could also reflect my father's own exile having left Mainland China when he was seventeen years old. He has returned only once.

3. STRUCTURE

3.1

60% Practical work up to MPhil/PhD transfer - concluding in an exhibition, and including artwork, statement, notes of artwork, progress of artwork, visual diaries, images collection and notation of theme and variation;
Artworks 01-06 - research and planning is completed;
• Artwork 01 “ThirtyThousandMiles of Exile” has been realised for the Thesis Outline Approval.
• Artwork 02 is “The interlude: My Mother and Self Portrait”.
• Artwork 03 is about my Father.
• Artwork 04 is about my childhood: using my only three childhood photographs.
• Artwork 05 is about the re-photographing of previous imagery from 1997.
• Artwork 06 is about collecting and re-working some old family photographs from the UK.

3.2 40% Written component up to MPhil/PhD transfer - recording and reflecting upon conceptual and technical ideas and methods about the role photography can play as a repository of painful ideas and cathartic solutions;
• the visual analysis of expressive and mnemonic elements in architecture,
• an exploration of the condition of melancholy as attached to perceptions of the past,
• a further exploration of nostalgia in the light of feelings of exile,
• a further exploration of the role of loss in the feelings of exile,
• with a critical account of the visualisation in the appropriate photographs and other manufactured images (painting, print and film) of Exile and Memory in the Twentieth Century.

 

4. RESEARCHES ALREADY UNDERTAKEN

4.1 I have written up sections of research
• an autobiography,
• a condensed thesis outline,
• a statement about making artwork,
• a statement about the process of artwork,
• the aims of image collection,
• a statement of artwork 1 “ThirtyThousandMiles of Exile”.
There are, to date, about ten thousands words in Chinese and one thousand words in English. I plan to write more and translate them in this academic year.

4.2 Process of Artwork 01 “ThirtyThousandMiles of Exile”: I have reserved the images for the process of artwork. It helps me understanding my research progress through visual context.

4.3 Image research: I have collected many images relevant to my research. It is intended to amass comparative examples to make clear the options available to the photographer in depicting Exile and Memory.

4.4 References: I have collected many references that reflect on my project. Details are in the Thesis Outline form.

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, the view from September 2002.

In tune with suggestions from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, I have prepared this list as I apply for Thesis outline approval.

5.1 How to represent my own experiences of Exile and its recreation through Memory in photographic form?

5.2 How to research and realise my thoughts and experiences through the visual language of a diptych structures?

5.3 How to understand the condition of exile and how it might be described in terms of images and words?

5.4 How to explore the application of the self portrait to context?

6. CONCLUSIONS for the Thesis Outline Approval Meeting

Briefly, what I have discovered during my research might be summed up thus;

6.1 The importance of autobiographic writing in understanding present and future work: This leads me to a greater understanding of myself and the reason for undertaking this research. I will keep writing in Chinese and edit in English for the future.

6.2 The diptych form with self portrait: The diptych form in my research is a very important mode of presentation. Although some other photographers use self portraiture in various ways - the created narrative, the structure of layers etc. my own use in combination with the split screen/diptych format is innovative and promises to be a fruitful way of expressing the chosen theme. Each visual exercise is a balance between intention (see above) and discovery. I am still learning and discovering new implications in the compositional format.

6.3 The role of the old building in enhancing and intensifying a sense of exile: Old buildings for me are so powerful as a link with the feeling of exile. I have explored this question both in my artwork and in my writing (autobiography and statement).

6.4 The sense of exile to be derived from old family photographs: I only have three family photographs from my childhood. For me, these old family photographs are the strong elements to link with the sense of exile. I will explore more about the meaning of old family photographs, both of mine and others.

6.5 The interaction between exile and memory: I realised my feelings of exile relate to certain characteristics of the act of recall - the more the memory is stretched the deeper the feeling of exile. There is a very strong link between them. I will explore it more in my autobiography.

6.6 Melancholia: I intend to research more into the visual conventions of melancholia in conventional icons such as works by Goya, Picasso, Walker Evans and the films of Scorcese. Can Melancholia be an alternative to active forms of sadness and depression? Can melancholia be an acceptable vehicle for creative practice

7. AFTER ACCEPTANCE OF THE OUTLINE

7.1 To continue doing the research context which I have established: I feel the structure of my research context has developed well. I was initially suspicious of the need to research thoroughly for fear of lessening the creative tension in my work. I am persuaded that this programme of research has benefited the artwork in deepening my understanding of several issues that had lain hidden.

7.2 To write a critical account of the visualisation of Exile and Memory in the Twentieth Century: I feel I need to research more about this in this academic year. I will explore some relevant artists reflecting upon these ideas or methods. Although expressions of melancholy and exile find many appropriate and relevant literary expressions (Brecht, Auden, and in particular James Joyce), I will emphasise the ways in which image makers have found ways to express this in visual form.

8. LIST OF REFERENCES

1. John Simpson ed., The Oxford Book of Exile, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
2. Hubertus v. Amelunxen, Stefan Iglhaut, Florian Rötzer (ed), Photography after photography: memory and representation in the digital age, G+B Arts, 1996.
3. Wolf Lepenies, Melancholy and Society, Harvard University Press, London, 1992.
4. Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, Translated by Richard Howard, New York: Hill & Wang, 1981.
5. Kevin Halliwell, Photography and Narrative: an investigation of serial imagery (PhD thesis), University of Kent, 1986.

Photography
1. Daniel Meadows, The Bus: the free photographic omnibus 1973-2001, The Harvill Press, London, 2001.
2. Didier Semin, Tamar Garb, Donald Kuspit (Ed), Christian Boltanski, Phaidon Prress Limited, London, 1997.
3. Shun-Chu Chen (Taiwanese artist), Two generations of Family Memories, 1993.
4. Michael Brix and Birgit Mayer (Ed), Walker Evans: America, Rizzoli, New York, 1991.
5. Josef Koudelka, Exiles: photographs, Thames and Hudson, London, 1988.
6. Robert Kramer, August Sander: photographs of an epoch, Aperture, New York, 1980.