Module 501 1YR Project Proposal FINAL

01 – Title of project

Self Portrait of a Female with Epilepsy

02 – Name of student and any collaborators and their roles

Robyn Thomas

03 – Advisor suggestions if any and if so explain (year one assigned by topic and availabilty by faculty board).

Laura Gonzalez and  Michael Bowdidge

04 – Description of proposed project or body of work – practical element

I propose to create a series of self portraits which will take non­-traditional approaches to the materials and techniques of painting. In these paintings I will seek to incorporate prints, specifically silkscreened elements, as well as drawings, fabrics, found images,
and possibly actual objects which signify or define my self identity, as well as serve as general signifiers in relation to the project thesis statement. I will also create a journal of visual imagery and text in a loose leaf format which can be in part incorporated into the paintings, serve as part of the visual/text component of the written portion of the project, or displayed as part of an exhibition of the project work. I will dedicate a separate image gallery on my website to document the source materials, process and progression of the visual work. Through the self portraits and journaling I seek to open up my approach to what painting can be by exploring the possibilities of adding elements from other media in order to create different layers of meaning in a more physical, tactile manner.

05 – Description of project report or thesis – written element

The written element of my project will consist of a text which will include a discourse between my own personal experiences with epilepsy and the historical as well as contemporary understanding of the disorder in women in various cultures throughout the world, and what this means physically, emotionally and socially. The purpose of the written work is to confront the viewer more directly with the nature of the disorder and its impact on the lives of women with epilepsy, and the dichotomy of feelings produced by the experience and diagnosis. I will engage the reader in the practice of hiding the disorder both from a historical as well as contemporary perspective, and what that has and does mean for female epileptics. Historically women with epilepsy have seldom been depicted in the traditional canon of western visual arts, therefore I will go outside this realm and explore the depiction of females with epilepsy, or females displaying symptoms of epileptic seizures in other areas of visual representation, specifically documentary medical imagery, and relate these images to self portraiture. I will address the historical concepts of self portraiture in relation to the expression of the artist’s identity complicated by internal forces and the feelings they produce at moments of extreme physical and/or philosophical change. Pages from the journal, found images and other components of the practical work may be used along with the written text to create a self ­published book which could become part of the exhibition of the project.

06 – Anticipated results, e.g. documentation, performance, script, intervention, website, exhibition, book, journal

The anticipated results of my project will include a series of paintings to be displayed in an exhibition, a loose­-leaf journal whose pages may or may not become part of the paintings in the series, and may or may not be included in a self­-published book of the written portion of the project along with images of the painting series and found images relating to the project research. I will also have a regularly updated, dedicated image gallery on my website.

07 – Initial bibliography for written element

Ramachandran, V.S. The Tell­Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest For What Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011.

Kean, Sam. The Tale Of The Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History Of The Human Brain As Revealed By True Stories Of Trauma, Madness, And Recovery. New York: Little, Brown And Company, 2014.

Temkin, Owsei. The Falling Sickness: A History Of Epilepsy From The Greeks To The Beginning Of Modern Neurology. 2nd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.

Bazil, Carl W. Living Well With Epilepsy And other Seizure Disorders: An Expert Explains What You Really Need To Know. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Didi­Huberman, Georges. Invention of Hysteria: Charcot And The Photographic Iconography Of The Salpetriere. Trans. Alisa Hartz. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2003.

Grosz, Elizabeth. Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power. Next Wave: New Directions In Women’s Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

Cahalan, Susannah. Brain On Fire: My Month Of Madness. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2012.

Schachter MD, Steven C., Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy MD, and Deborah T. Combs Cantrell MD, eds. Epilepsy In Our Lives: Women Living With Epilepsy. Brainstorms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Schachter MD, Steven C., and Lisa Francesca Andermann MD, eds. Epilepsy In Our World: Stories Of Living With Seizures From Around The World. Brainstorms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008

Schachter MD, Steven C., ed. Epilepsy In Our View: Stories From Friends And Families Of People Living With Epilepsy. Brainstorms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Specter, Michael. “Partial Recall.” The New Yorker 19 May 2014: 38­48.

Devinsky, Orrin, Charles Vorkas, William B. Barr, and Bruce P. Hermann. “Chapter 203: Personality Disorders in Epilepsy.” Epilepsy: A Comprehensive Textbook. 2nd ed., vol. III. Jerome Engel, Jr. MD, PhD, and Timothy A. Pedley, MD, eds. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007. 2105­2112.

LaPlante, Eve. Seized: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy As A Medical, Historical, And Artistic Phenomenon. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Saint Louis, Catherine. “Easing Epilepsy With Battery Power.” The New York Times 24 Mar 2014: online edition.

Fagan, Jennie. “An Illness, Inherited?” The New York Times 2 April 2014: online edition.

Gorman, James. “All Circuits Are Busy.” The New York Times 26 May 2014: online edition.

Showalter, Elaine. Hystories. 1998.

Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture 1830­1980. 1987.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1. 1990.

Taussig, Michael. The Nervous System. 1991.

Tompkins, Calvin, Duchamp, Marcel. The Afternoon Interviews. 2013.

Cabanne, Pierre. Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. 1987.

Grosse, Katharina. Transparent Eyeballs. 2011. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Idiot. 1868­69, 1913.

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. 1994 edition.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking­Glass. 2004 edition.

Kramer, Heinrich, Sprenger, James. Malleus Maleficarum. 2009 edition.

von Engelhart, Dietrich, Schneble, Hansjorg, Wolf, Peter, eds. Das ist eine alte Krankheit: Epilepsie in der Literature. 2000.

Fontana, Lucio. Exhibition Catalogue. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt a. M. 1996.

08 – Research statement – hypothesis or question you pose

How can the experiences of women with epilepsy be visually depicted today via the artist’s self portrait in a way that references both historical as well as contemporary understanding of the disorder in various cultures throughout the world; widens the viewers’ understanding of that particular disorder; engages the viewers to consider what disorders he or she might have, be hiding or revealing; and what this means to his or her image of self?

09 – Formulate entire project in 2-3 meaningful sentences.

I will create a series of self portraits which will take non­-traditional approaches to the materials and techniques of painting; and I will make a loose-leaf journal which will be used to explore my subject matter, be incorporated on a page by page basis into my paintings and a self­-published book of the project, as well as stand alone as art works for display. My subject matter pertains to the depiction of women with epilepsy through the self portraits of one woman with epilepsy, myself. My research will focus on the disorder epilepsy; the historical and contemporary understanding and representation of women with epilepsy, and how it impacts their lives based upon this understanding; I will address the historical concepts of self portraiture in relation to the expression of the artist’s identity complicated by internal forces and the feelings they produce at moments of extreme physical and/or philosophical change, and how by the act of mirroring which occurs in self portraits the viewer becomes a part of the experience of the epileptic.

10A. List three works of art, performances, events, etc. to describe, compare and contrast.

○  The Transfiguration 1516­1520; by Raphael

○  Self Portrait with the Portrait of Doctor Farill; 1951 Frida Kahlo

○  The Portrait Anatomised; 2013 Susan Aldworth

10B. Provide one to three themes, questions, topics, issues, threads etc. to discuss, compare and contrast which are relevant to your work.

What is the disorder we call “epilepsy” and what is the impact it has had historically and recently in the lives of women with this disorder?

How and why have women with epilepsy been or not been depicted in fine arts imagery compared and contrasted with the depiction of women with epilepsy or hysteria induced epileptic seizures in medical imagery

How have artists used self portraiture as a means of conveying their personal experiences with internal conflicts to express a commonality with the internal conflicts experienced by all humans.

10C. Formulate as a paragraph as in the examples above.

I will study, compare and contrast three works of art. They are the “The Transfiguration” by Raphael, a self portrait by Frida Kahlo, and The Portrait Anatomised by Susan Aldworth. I will identify which aspect of depiction of either Epilepsy or another form of internal conflict each of these paintings portray. How do these three artists, Raphael, Frida Kahlo, and Susan Aldworth engage in the process of depiction of Epilepsy or internal conflict? How are they able to dissolve borders between what they are depicting [subject] and the viewer [object], so that the roles reverse and the experience of the once subject and now object becomes experienced by the viewer? How would the change in the gender of the subject effect the reception of the painting on the part of the viewer?

10D. How will this research support your creative project or practice in general (150 words)?

The research will support my creative project and practice by providing me with the tools and the language to approach painting, self portraiture, within the context of the depiction of women with epilepsy in a non­traditional manner. It will help me to process my own experience with the disorder and the relationship it has had to my art­making and provide a theoretical support structure to express this experience. Finally, it will help me provide through the resulting visual work a forum in which viewers can contemplate and discuss the feelings and experiences surrounding historically stigmatized and hidden disorders, specifically in women.

10E. Are you excited to get started reading and writing about what you are researching?

Yes