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Ideas around homage, mimicry and mimesis are integral to this project due to my interest in producing images of myself that are also self-identifications with more famous others. The images show myself in a wide variety of appearances, and are emblematic of growth, change, adaptation, and transition. For me it is a celebration of the performance of life, of the ever-changing nature of life and identity.
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My artistic production is characterised by repeated efforts to represent myself in different appearances by manipulating the surface of my body differently, particularly my face.
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The thesis comprises a studio component made up of eight overlapping bodies of work that engage with the concepts of homage, mimicry, mimesis, masquerade and narcissism, and a written component addressing these concepts in relation to contemporary art more broadly and my place in it. Using myself as subject also allows me to explore the excitement of self-transformation. This project, begun in 2006, uses photographic and video imagery to investigate the shifting nature of self-representation and identity, and the elusive concept of the ʻself-portraitʼ. Pureland may be a hybrid image, not only digitally composited from existing visual material, but also comprised of traces of disparate Japanese and European visual traditions and conventions. The co-existence of conflicting idyllic and mystic strands in the image is investigated throughout as an uneasy relationship which may rupture to reveal the digital sublime. The sublime as aesthetic concept is investigated in the context of the mystic landscape tradition which is fundamentally opposed to affirmative (idyllic) tendencies in both art and popular culture, which may be present in Pureland. I derive what I understand as the "digital sublime" from Jean-Francois Lyotard's (1984: 36-43) sublime. This may indicate that what is not depicted (something un-pleasant?) may also be relevant, and is investigated as allusion to the digital sublime lurking beneath the smooth appearance, manifesting in brief moments of "presence" as Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (2004) interprets it. It appears as if something is omitted from the image, however. Furthermore Pureland seems reminiscent of landscape traditions that relate to idyllic yearning or nostalgia. Sentimental images also appear in Japanese manga and anime, and in Western popular media such as Hollywood films. The pleasant appearance of the image is striking and seems to allude to the affirmative character of mass media images describing beautiful natural scenery. The possibility of a "digital sublime" is investigated in this paper mainly as it may appear in a Cibachrome print entitled Pureland by Japanese artist Mariko Mori (Weintraub 2003). Mori’s Wave UFO attendant costumes present minimalist fashio. Minimalist fashion, as a kind of plastic mechanization of corporeal experience, helps to accomplish this healing. Wave UFO creates a mediated space for healing the modern body plagued with isolation through transcendence provided by technological means. This highly alienating space in which she positions herself gradually transitions to a space of respite for the performative body of another actor by 2001's Wave UFO. Tumult characterizes Mori's body as she images it early on in her career. Contained within her sartorial phrasing is an involved relationship with the body, female and Japanese, as it exists within technological modernity. Mariko Mori’s Sartorial Transcendence: Fashioned Identities, Denied Bodies, and Healing, 1993-2001 Jacqueline Rose Hibner Department of Visual Arts, BYU Master of Arts This thesis is an examination of contemporary artist Mariko Mori's use of fashion in her work from 1993 to 2001.