| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 美術學系 === 100 === Death is inevitable for all life forms; they always end up as dead bodies. However, during most of our life, we tend to consign death to oblivion; death has been deliberately thrust out of our considerations, as something that will happen only to “others.” Death itself is also regarded as an “Other,” something that we are not involved in and thus can be viewed indifferently. In our daily life, however, death occurs frequently and dead bodies are ubiquitous. Those suffering the tragedy of death are mostly animals with which we are familiar; since animals are not human beings after all, their deaths are taken lightly and when they are not part of our food, their carcasses are deemed as a nuisance, or waste. This discourse first analyzes and compares Western paintings on death and dead bodies, followed by a discussion on the nature of death and dead bodies from the perspective of contemporary philosophical thoughts. Finally, such an interpretation will be applied to the author’s series of works, Animal Deaths, in the hope of inspiring a re-examination of the general notion about life via a closer look at death and dead bodies. This discourse is divided into five chapters, as follows:
Chapter I Introduction:
The creative motivation and purpose are expounded, and the artworks on death and dead bodies in different stages of Western painting history are sampled, illustrated, analyzed and compared.
Chapter II Creative Theories, death and dead bodies in contemporary philosophical thoughts:
The theories of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Kristeva, and Kenzaburo Oe are employed to explore the nature of death and dead bodies, in order to present the possible mental states and reflections when people are faced with death and dead bodies.
Chapter III Creative Form and Origins:
The creative mediums and forms adopted by the author are explicated; the reason why painting was chosen for the creative art to be examined, and why animals are discussed in the death issue are clarified. The Western paintings, whose creative forms and thoughts correspond to, or have an impact on, the author’s works, are also analyzed.
Chapter IV Interpretation and Connotations of Animal Deaths:
Death is often considered to be nothing but an incident and animal deaths seem to have nothing to do with human beings. Nonetheless, animal deaths, in the author’s view, are packed with a wide range of possibilities for discourse. This chapter includes a detailed analysis of the Animal Deaths series of works.
Chapter V Conclusion:
The overall creative process and the thoughts built up from the author’s studies of relevant theories are concluded, and new possibilities for future creations are also proposed.
|
|---|
