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Self-portraiture and portraiture in the dialogic moment

Sobers, Shawn

Authors

Shawn Sobers Shawn.Sobers@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice



Abstract

This presentation will be an autoethnographic exploration of personal and public approaches to memory, reparation and reconciliation within implicit gendered contexts. Discussed will be personal art works ranging from my confessional works, activist pieces and images of self-exploration, through to more outward facing projects from my work exploring gender, identity and resilience, all works in different ways addressing the notion of maleness as other. Drawing on ideas by Franz Fanon (1963) and Paulo Freire (1972), my personal works draw on a cultural memory using the self as a dialogic form of language for empathy and projection as a form of wrestling with social events. Public outward facing projects discussed sees arts as a methodology of visual communication, with representation as the central concern for the adopted approaches, in one example as a form of distancing identity towards a generalised narrative, in another example as a form of making the identity of the individual as the central message. The presentation will argue of the empowerment and transformative tendencies of the arts positioning the ‘final’ art work as a process of the dialogic moment.


References
Fanon, F. (1963), The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin Books, UK
Freire, P. (1972), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin Books, UK

Citation

Sobers, S. (2015, June). Self-portraiture and portraiture in the dialogic moment. Paper presented at Gender Recalled, King's College, London

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (unpublished)
Conference Name Gender Recalled
Conference Location King's College, London
Start Date Jun 30, 2015
End Date Jun 30, 2015
Publication Date Jun 30, 2015
Peer Reviewed Not Peer Reviewed
Keywords gender, social justice, self-portraiture, portraiture, activism, community media, anthropology
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/832378
Additional Information Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Gender Recalled