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Abstract
This paper is an examination of desire as it manifests itself and is experienced in modernity and accompanies a sculpturally embodied investigation of this topic.
It is based on research into philosophical and sociological theories regarding desire and modernity, starting with art critical texts that address desire - Rosalind Krauss in 'Bachelors' and Hal Foster in 'Compulsive Beauty' and then continue on to the primary texts that these works draw on – Baudrillard, and Deleuze and Guattari.
In response to this research I have developed my own theory regarding desire which is then made manifest in my MFA’s sculptural and video pieces. With these artworks my goal is to give the emotion or experience of desire a physical presence. I posit that in modernity desire has become a thing in and of itself and it is no longer connected to a desiring object or subject; it is simply desire. This theory is based primarily on Deleuze and Guattari’s assertion that in modern capitalist society, that which is desirable is constantly shifting according to the whims of society, and shift from object to object according to what is socially agreed to be desirable at any one time. Thus desirability does not reside in the object or subject itself, but in the vagaries of society that are often shaped or manufactured by mass media. Thus my work consists of a number of sculptural pieces which exist in a self-enclosed system of desire – both desirable and desiring, surrounded by a number of works which can be viewed as explanatory texts or working ‘drawings’.
This paper also includes an analysis of the novel Madame Bovary and particularly its heroine, Emma Bovary. In my art practice I work from a literary foundation and in the character Emma Bovary I found an archetype for the dilemma of desire in modernity. Emma is a young woman who tries to bring her own experiences and life closer to that of the glamorous, romantic characters in the novels she reads, falling into debt and despair when this gap cannot be achieved.