The artistic
research project “Stitches and Sutures” explores possibilities of making lived experiences visual. The point of departure
is the repeated occurrence of sensory disturbances caused by a chronic disease. This irritation in one's own body perception
brings on a feeling of alienation. For decades, I have been concerned with textile representations of the body and of corporeality.
My discovery that bodily phenomena that I currently experience resemble phenomena embodied in my earlier artistic work has
raised several questions about body consciousness, body memory, and the bodily unconscious. At issue are inner-body phenomena
caused by the disease and perceived as if they were tactile sensations.
One
of the crucial questions that I ask is in fact twofold: What kinds of language and what memories of past experiences are available
to me in my efforts to make the invisible visible? And does the artistic research that I have undertaken make it easier for
me to cope with the illness? Does it serve as a support to me in the process of reappropriating a body that I have come to
perceive as foreign? Also of particular interest is the question of how and if instances of subjective perception can be conveyed
visually as ‘embodiments’ and what relevance these embodiments can have with regard to the medical humanities as well as in
the clinical context. The title of the project is to be understood literally as referring to work with needle and thread,
but also as indicating a conceptual approach. I ask myself the question: Can I use Jacques Lacan’s notion of ‘suture’ as the
basis of an artistic method? This notion signifies a process whereby the past is studded retroactively with stitches as a
production of meaning. Textile membranes and drawing paper are the ‘canvas’ on which I record physical sensations and a means
that enables me to reflect on the transition from sensation to perception and from perception to visual representation, a
process that culminates in a Phenomenological Archive of Body Sensations.
The exhibition will present drawings, textile
works and photographs.
Barbara Graf is a visual artist and senior lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna
www.barbara-graf.atExhibition:19 – 20 February
2024, 12:00 – 17:00h
21 – 22 February 2024, 13:00 – 18:00h
If you would like to visit the exhibition outside
opening hours, please contact:
barbara.graf@uni-ak.ac.atDefense:23 February 2024, 10:00h
Venue:
Zentrum Fokus Forschung
Rustenschacherallee 2-4, 1020 Vienna
Supervisor: Barbara Putz-Plecko
Examination committee members: Ruth Anderwald, Monika Ankele, Julian Klein, Alice Pechriggl,
Barbara Putz-Plecko
