How can Utopia inform the understanding of works of visual and plastic art?

Abstract

This project explores the production of visual art, utopian studies, and the interpretation of the works of Luce Irigaray, through a body of artwork that embodies and demonstrates perceptions of utopia as informing strategies for critique and re-imagining aspects of society. The explorations led to the discovery of a common liminal (Van Gennep) character in the concept of utopia and the utopian element as enmeshed with the desire for a better way of being (Ruth Levitas); the concept of 'transitional phenomena' of object relations theory as pertaining to art (Donald Winnicott); and the idea of the 'sensible transcendental' in considering twoness of being (Luce Irigaray). These contributions are embodied in and represented by the body of work and explained in the written dissertation that accompanies and supports the body of work