Moving an audience through the act of painting : exploring emotion and expression

Abstract

This dissertation has given me the opportunity to further explore my self-expression by fusing my two passions, performance and painting. They have been a big part of who I am as a person from the very beginning of my childhood and have served as the inspiration for my artistic practice throughout these three years at the University of Malta. The research, experimentation and the ideas generated throughout this project have allowed me to realise that they all stem from the essence of the individual. All art can be personal, can investigate the ‘event’, communicate and move an audience through ‘line’. Cy Twombly’s notion on the ‘event’ and ‘line’ have been central to the theoretical framework of my project. He has been one of my biggest inspirations, allowing me to view the ‘line’ as something beyond its surface. Through painting and performance, the ‘event’ is explored, where the artist’s expression is finally externalised and materialised through the ‘Line’, the final result. Throughout this dissertation, I use my passions performance and painting, to create brushstrokes and movements that explore this ‘event’ and celebrate the narrative behind the ‘line’ and the emotional expression of the individual. The four chapters have been structured in a way that tells the story of my expression. It narrates the development of my project throughout these past months, and aims to move the reader through my thought process, experimentation and research. The first chapter establishes the areas on which my theme touches upon, those being psychology, philosophy and expression found in paintings and performance art. Contemporary creatives such as Twombly and Pina Bausch have inspired me in my initial experimentation with paint and collaborative performance research workshops, which are discussed in chapter two. Additionally, the interviews can be considered in the context on how they have given fresh perspectives on expression and movement in art, which are further developed in chapter three. Here, the live performance along with exhibited painting are discussed in detail in reference to the ‘event’, ‘line’ and creative act. In chapter four, the project comes to a close, where I reflect on the challenges and learning experiences raised throughout the project and how they have improved my artistic practice.