A Poetics of Care: Mourning, Consolation, Healing. A Poetics of Care: Mourning, Consolation, Healing. Mary Anne Pip Stokes “Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (By Creative Work and Dissertation)” July 2010 The Centre for Ideas, VCAM. The University of Melbourne. i ~ Abstract ~ This thesis proposes a synthesis of the discourses of Care with art practices of Care. The thesis is written in two parts: Part1 outlines this synthesis of theory and practice in two chapters, Chapter 1, Writing Care and Chapter 2, Making Care. Part 2, also in two chapters, describes two installations shown by me in the course of this PhD with accompanying documentation. These are followed by Appendices. In Chapter 1, Writing Care, theories of Care by Heidegger, Alexander Garcia Düttmann, Emmanuel Levinas, Paul Ricoeur, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva and Iris Murdoch are examined for concepts which define Care. In this chapter a language, an articulation, which throws light on the concerns of the artwork of Care is also sought. In Chapter 2, of Part 1, I selected four arts practitioners to analyse and interpret processes, materials and subject matter in the light of the elucidation of Care found in the philosophies of Care, inquiring through the artworks into the contribution made to an understanding of Care. The four art practices were chosen to reflect different disciplines, media, materials and subject matter, enabling me to thoroughly test my double thesis question: Can a poetics of Care construct a theoretical and practical framework through which an art practice could be understood? And its implied converse: How does an art practice contribute to an understanding of Care? ii One major work from each of the four practices is selected: Derek Jarman’s Garden in Dungeness, Kent, UK; Brambuk, Living Cultural Centre, Gariwerd, Victoria, designed by the architect, Gregory Burgess; an installation, entitled, A Silkroom of One’s Own, by Melbourne artist, Elizabeth Presa and A Woman’s Tale, (1991) a film by the Melbourne based filmmaker, Paul Cox. A growing lexicon of Care is sought in the detailed examination of each work. These two chapters of the theory and practice of Care in the arts are followed by a Conclusion where I describe the findings of Part 1. This is followed by Part 2, Practising Care, which outlines the two exhibitions I produced in the course of this thesis. The exegesis of my own artworks is treated separately from the “theoretical” component of the thesis as I do not wish to “theorise” my own work, however, I do contextualize A Shrine for Orpheus, my examination exhibition, as a work of Care. All the interests of this thesis arise, in the first place in my own practice, and its concerns with mourning, consolation and healing are clear in the two bodies of work described. I have chosen to make the major exegesis of Care in the arts through four practices other than my own in order to make some enduring and objective findings about this important subject. My own works are the source of a poetics of Care in practice. The first installation, Metamorphoses: Dresses My Mother Wore, is a work of mourning: it is composed of three dress-like structures made from materials antithetical to “dress” and “body”: rose thorns, paper, beeswax, ash and feathers. This work is not my PhD examination exhibition but is included in brief documentation to deepen the reader’s knowledge of my practice. The examination installation, A Shrine for Orpheus, extends this vocabulary of materials and subjects of Care, incorporating “cremated” bones, books dipped and bound in beeswax, household objects, like vessels and bowls: memento mori cast in beeswax, as well as “found objects,” including mirrors and natural materials. This section outlines an inter-species collaboration with a living beehive, in which various “votive” objects, including poems by writer, Paul Carter, were given to the bees on which to “draw up” their cell building honey comb. This work, underpinned by the model of transformation exemplified in the social biology of the beehive, is a work that meditates on both death and transformation. iii ~ Declaration ~ This is to certify that i. this thesis comprises only my original work toward the PhD except where indicated. ii. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. iii. the thesis is 45,400 words as approved by the RHD Committee. iv ~ Acknowledgements ~ I would like to acknowledge the care and support offered to this thesis and creative work by my principal supervisor Elizabeth Presa and my second supervisor Dimitris Vardoulakis. I would also like to acknowledge the “concern and solicitude” offered to this work in conversation and affirmation by Paul Carter as well as for his contribution of “Poems for the Bees,” included in my examination exhibition, A Shrine for Orpheus. I would like to thank Emily Taylor for the images and video that she made of my installation, incorporated in the documentation of that work in this thesis and to acknowledge my son, Kasimir Burgess, who helped me make the soundscape and my daughter Sophia who collected “things” for me. To my husband, Gregory Burgess, this work, this vine. v Table of Contents Title page ...................................................................................................................... i Abstract .................................................................................................................. ii - iii Declaration .................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................v Table of Contents ................................................................................................. vi - vii List of Illustrations .............................................................................................. viii - xi Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 - 9 Part One Chapter One: Writing Care ................................................................................. 10 - 37 Introduction Düttmann and “What Matters” Heidegger’s “Language of Care” Heidegger’s “Fourfold” Levinas- “The Call and the Response”: An Ethics of the Other Ricoeur and Solicitude Derrida and Mourning – The Care of Death Archiving the Language of Care vi Kristeva: Feminine Care Iris Murdoch: “Attention,” A Care of Seeing Weaving the Cloth of Care Chapter Two: Making Care 2.1 The Cultivation of Care: Derek Jarman’s Garden ..................................... 38 - 57 2.2 Care of Place: The Architecture of Gregory Burgess ................................ 58 - 88 2.3 The Care of Mourning in the Work of Elizabeth Presa ........................... 89 - 114 2.4 The Care of Intimacy: Interiors and “Things” in the Filmmaking of Paul Cox. A Woman’s Tale and other Films ......................................... 115 - 134 Conclusion to Part One ................................................................................... 135 - 142 Part Two: Practising Care. Chapter 1: Dresses My Mother Wore Span Galleries, Flinders Lane, Melbourne ................................... 143 - 151 Chapter 2: A Shrine for Orpheus Fortyfivedownstairs, Flinders Lane, Melbourne .......................... 152 - 187 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 188 - 195 Appendices 1. Diary Notes. A Visit to Derek Jarman’s Garden. 2. Catalogue: A Shrine for Orpheus. 3. Review: A Shrine for Orpheus, by Dr Marcus Bunyan. May 20, 2010, including published ‘Artist’s Statement’ from that exhibition. 4. Video of A Shrine for Orpheus, by photographer/video installation artist, Emily Taylor, with soundscape of bees by Kasimir Burgess. 5. CD images from A Shrine for Orpheus by Taylor. 6. CD images from A Shrine for Orpheus by Gregory Burgess. vii ~ Illustrations ~ Listed by Chapter. Part 1. Chapter 2.1. The Cultivation of Care: Derek Jarman’s Garden. All images by the artist except where otherwise acknowledged. Figure 1. Shale site. Figure 2. The site with nuclear reactor. Figure 3. Pebble-edged garden planting. Figure 4. Shale pebble circle with old chain. Figure 5. Back garden sheltered by studio. Figure 6. Lumber and metal “totems.” Figure 7. “Little Sparta,” Ian Hamilton Finlay’s garden. Figure 8. Rusted chains in Jarman’s garden. Figure 9. Kale. Figure 10. A page from Jarman’s Garden Di a r y . Figure 11. Carved text of Donne’s poem on cottage wall. Figure 12. Old French horn on back wall of prospect cottage. Figure 13. Prospect cottage with Derek Jarman (Derek Jarman’s Garden, image by Howard Sooley) viii Chapter 2.2. Care of Place: The Architecture of Gregory Burgess. All images are from the architect’s archives. Figure 1. Brambuk. Figure 2. Early sketch of Brambuk. Figure 3. Grace Cooper-Sailor. Figure 4. Prototype woven screen by Cooper-Sailor. Figure 5. Burgess’ copy of “The Spiritual Song of the Aborigines.” Figure 6. Les Griggs. Figure 6. The Community building team. Figure 8. Brambuk’s roofline. Figure 9. The “mourning log.” Figure 10. Brambuk interior. Figure 11. East facing entry. Figure 12. Anthony Anderson. Figure 13. Ironbark trunk and the earth. Figure 14. Interior, upper floor. Figure 15. The hearth of Brambuk. Chapter 2.3. The Care of Mourning in The Work of Elizabeth Presa: A Silkroom of One’s Own. All images