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Abstract
The creative work presented for examination deals with my made mark as memorialisation of my body within a past present moment of creative action and contemplation. The exhibition titled Body Mark will consist of sculptural installation, video, and paper-based works that will be exhibited at Kudos Gallery in May 2014.
The research paper explored the artist's mark as the inevitable result of her creative action. After first defining what is meant by the 'mark' and introducing my concept of 'distilled mark making', the paper will go on to investigate how it is that a viewer can access the artist's past present creative action via their observation of that artist's made mark. The paper will discover how an artist's use of repetition allows her to present the movement of her body through time, and will end with an observation of how the breath can be used as a metaphor for my concept of distilled mark-making before concluding.
I will define the distilled mark as the result of consequential action, for example a scratch, smear, dent or footprint. I describe how this type of mark survives as a document in time and thus can be utilised by an artist to explore presentness. I reference established phenomenological theorists, artists, and art theorists to discuss how my conception of the distilled mark can reference a movement through time by becoming the artist's tool for their insistence of self. I focus on a number of artists most of whom have conceptual or performance based practices, or a practice based within a concern for simplicity and the minimal. I also address Zenga art practices and my own daily practice of Iyengar yoga to illustrate a spiritual connection with the notion of presentness and time.
The final part of this paper suggests the idea the breath is the ultimate manifestation of repetition and thus is the constant reminder of our own presentness. I describe how I use breath as a metaphor and a measure for my own artistic practice, and how my observance of my own breath allows me to create these works that explore my body within a present moment in time.