Conclusion
In this paper, I explored the abject and the maternal abject. Historically,
Bataille calls abjection the hypocrisy of hygiene. He has a great deal of distaste
for a society which excludes and bans from view, vile and repulsive processes
which are very much part of life. The true artist becomes then the conduit,
which brings the abject to centre stage, and harmonises the social order.
Kristeva’s analysis of the abject however, has been the main focus in this
paper. According to Kristeva, the abject exists within us and yet we are in
a constant state of expelling it from ourselves. Abjection has no borders and
as such becomes the site of much conflict in any social or spiritual order.
The maternal abject is the point at which the infant separates from the mother,
maps its body and acquires language. Kristeva also states that the aesthetic
process is a need to harmonise a conflict whose roots stem from a problematic
maternal separation. Therefore it is a critical point in the life of an artist
whose main object in life becomes a need to expel the maternal abject, while
it resides forever within him or her.
Elizabeth Grosz interprets Kristeva’s writings on the abject by explaining
the relationship between the child’s separation from his or her mother
and the way the child identifies its own body.
Klein resembles the abject to fantasies of object aggression. According to Klein the first object of aggression in a person is a series of external-objects, which an infant fantasizes about and connects to internal-objects such as in biting food. It is through these fantasies, prohibition, and resistance, that the body is mapped and a social order is built.
Following on from these theories on abjection, I looked at various artists projects,
and examined where the maternal abject is located in their work. Mary Kelly’s
experience of mothering is displayed as a chronicle with her son’s archive
effacing her own identity. Here Kelly presented the maternal abject as a displacement
and a negation of herself. Cindy Sherman used irony and repetition to emphasise
and mock the idealised and feared maternal figure. Here she invoked her maternal
abject experience through the aggressive laughter she invites in the viewer
at these idealised maternal figures of Renaissance art.
Gregory Crewdson signifies the abject in such a way as to merge it literally
with the erotic. His images are more like tunnels, which drive the viewer into
focusing even harder on the main object in the image: in Untitled 1995 it is
a vagina shaped wound. This wound, together with the birthing cycle of butterflies
could be read as Crewdson’s relationship to the maternal abject. Crewdson’s
method of channelling the vision is used repeatedly in my work.
Joel-Peter Witkin is another artist who worked with the abject as a way to expose
and accept it. Body parts sewn up in vaginal shapes amongst putrid but sensual
fruits such as grapes and pomegranate served Crewdson to give a possible interpretation
of his work as dealing with the maternal abject.
I also drew inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch’s construction of his paintings.
Here, the abject was presented through the merger of part-objects, which he
turned into demonic figures. Bosch’s painting resonates with Bataille’s
abjection theory of inclusion of the repulsive as opposed to the pursuit of
purification inherent in Christian belief.
Paul Quinn illustrates the multilayering of seemingly incongruous ideas such
as economics and art. The seductive and the repulsive, economics and sexual
taboos all gathered in the same image invoking again the abject.
Also in this paper, I explored the personal versus the private and its place
in the political arena. This is particularly poignant when a woman becomes a
mother and is relegated to the home, where what ever happens there is signified
as private and therefore of no consequence to the economic or social order as
a whole. What I have been proposing is that personal experiences of individuals
should be seen as building blocks for a healthy social order and therefore should
not be shunned from view. This is the political stance I took in which I was
influenced by Mona Hatoum and Fiona Hall’s works.
Hall explored the political nature of the domestic in many of her works but
particularly in her tedious and beautiful piece, Untitled: table construction
with white pipes. This work consisted of miniscule holes pierced in drain pipes
beneath a table presumably a kitchen or dinner table. The abject of the pipes
merged with the private sphere of the home and the domain of knitting or embroidery
to signify the political nature of her work. Mona Hatoum also explored the political
nature of the personal. I used four examples: the performance Pull and the three
installations Recollection, Prayer Mat and Mother and Child.
The maternal abject, the Kleinian aggression and repair of an object, the personal
versus the private, and the body politics, were each illustrated using a different
component of the personal experience.
I also highlighted through the writings of Susan Maushardt that the field of
the maternal abject is fraught with accusations towards mothers. Maushardt concludes
by saying that any investigation should look into comprehending the maternal
process rather than apprehending individual mothers.
I looked at abjection and psychoanalysis and focused on Frida Kahlo and Louise
Bourgeois. I was particularly interested in the painting
My Birth by Kahlo, which culminated in the summation of all her maternal abject
experiences namely: her failed separation from her mother, her three miscarriages,
and her constant pain following her street accident. Bourgeois on the other
hand was interested in obliterating her own mother and chose to turn her aggression
on body pieces. Last but not least, Bacon’s obsession with the mouth and
the distorted body as sites where the maternal abject reside, informed my own
fascination with the mouth.
Throughout this paper, I examined and demonstrated that many artists have in
common with me a personal exploration into the abject. My personal trajectory
of in particular, the maternal abject, although less common, is also significantly
expressed by some of the artists. Additionally, I gave new insights and possible
interpretations of the maternal abject in some works of Gregory Crewdson, and Joel-Peter Witkin. These insights and interpretations highlight
for me that the maternal abject could, within the realm of possibilities, exist
in works which do not display at first reading an association with the maternal
abject.Finally I would like to say that my mothering experience might be more,
and might be less traumatic than most mothers but there is no denying that nothing
changes the life of a woman like the birth of her first child. It is truly an
experience, which brings together the abject with its object and the life drive
with the death drive.
Through this project, I began to watch with fascination how my children discover
their own body, how they overcome their “separation anxiety”, how
they acquire language and how I teach them through language what is right and
what is wrong, and what is clean and what is dirty. I observe their socialisation
and reflect on my own. Through this series of biological, intellectual, and
emotional events I observe a transformation taking place which I now know is
the maternal abject.
One of the issues I faced when writing this paper is the number of artists I
feel some kind of connection with. The number was far too vast and I invariably
felt as if I had not covered enough ground or had left out a relevant artist’s
contribution to this discourse.
Certainly, this project has served me to define the way I make art and as such,
I will continue to explore my personal experiences. No doubt, I will cross many
more boundaries and therefore I will use the tools I learned through this project
to launch myself into the next phase. My introduction to psychoanalytical writings
has been useful in aiding me to search for possible answers. I will use this
in the next projects. Equally, the use of objects or installation work for the
first time has opened up for me a new avenue to express my thoughts and ideas.
This is indeed an invaluable addition to my art making.
©2001 Mireille Astore