Homeopathic tendencies : acts of metaphysical desire.

Abstract

Homeopathic Tendencies explores the relationship between creative intuition and the Spiritualist movement. The links between the domestic setting and magical thinking are explored through the invention of ritual in the home, the collecting and animating of objects and the building of domestic shrines. It examines artists that used Spiritualism as a method for making work but also artists that engage with a magical language when describing dealing with uncertainty in their own work.By using a mystical domestic setting as the basis for her paintings and sculptures Carmel Seymour explores the similarities between the Spiritualist movement and the artist’s experience of intuition. Various figurative painters works and processes have been examined in an attempt to allow more elements of the unknown, more spontaneity into her own work.The paper examines the use of Spiritualist ideas in contemporary art and refers back to historical aspects of the movement, the works of Hilma af Klint and the movement’s importance to the female voice. A discussion of the Surrealist use of objects, poetry and magic gives some historical basis for artistic engagement with the supernatural. An exploration of the objects we collect in our homes speaks of sentiment, memory and the sacred. The attempts by the artist to recreate these kind of wonder objects are documented here.The experience of painting is then compared directly the séance. The process of painting and its unknown outcomes are discussed with reference to Peter Doig, Karin Mamma Anderson and Pierre Bonnard. The author’s own attempts at creating new processes to allow more spontaneity into her own work open up spaces for discussion of the role of artistic intuition in (her) artistic practice. The outcomes of the thesis are presented in a concluding chapter that reflects upon the accompanying exhibition.