Section 3 ; Project Evaluation
My project aim was to think painting as a method of communication in order to give/create the viewers, concrete form of feelings which are often unconscious and recognise the self(emotion) within, using elements from art therapy and abstract expressionism. Looking at the terms of ‘using painting as a method of communication’ I think I was able to achieve this by not only presenting single painting I’ve done, but by actually allowing the paintings themselves to communicate with each other that were created using different medium and aim first, in order to allow a space for the viewer to take part.
Through researching about art therapy, I came to realise that the project aim of ‘give/create a concrete form’ should be corrected to ‘give/create a projection of the viewer’s unconsciousness.’ The word of ‘projection’ was used in the book of “The secret word of drawings” (1988) by Furth.G, stating how in art therapy sessions it is dangerous to project our own psychology to the patient’s drawings. Where in fact, my initial aim was to change the relationship of the drawer/painter being not the patient, but the therapist, and the viewer being the patient to experience therapeutic change. So that my aim changed to create a painting that ables viewer to project their unconsciousness/emotions.
When the painting works as a projection, it gives each viewer a place to communicate with the painting. Projection changes its forms by each viewers perspectives, where if the painting was a ‘form’ it only communicates with the viewer who ‘thinks’ the form shows the inner self. This finding through also researching about Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly was my breakthrough point of this project.
To achieve the project aim, although I am more of a figurative painter, I decided to paint abstract as I thought it was the most successful way to achieve my goal. By combining two elements of art therapy method and abstract expressionism method, I was able to create my own style of approaching painting, looking at scientific/psychological approach and the actual art movement.
The most successful aspect of my project would be how I was able to experiment with quite lots of medium and different elements to get to the final outcome. However, the actual process of evaluating if the painting allowed viewer to recognise self within was the unsuccessful part as I can not be the viewer like other people of my work, and can not tell if I actually achieved the aim or not. If I were to start the project again, I will change the aim to not create projection of other people’s emotion but myself within, or create more time to actually take a survey or question if the work was successful or not in order of recognising self within.