Dadaism, Surrealism, and the Unconscious

This paper explores two important, twentieth-century art movements, Dadaism and Surrealism and the use of primitivist representations and their relation to the art emerging from the unconscious. By giving some examples, it is argued that the influence of 'Primitive' art is strongly felt in the art of many artists of these movements. One must also include the growing interest of psychoanalytic studies, especially in the works of the period of Freud and Jung. The Dadaist artists created their art through the irrational approach towards nature and a 'primitive' attitude to the environment, the art of children and of the insane. On the other hand, the Surrealists approached the unconscious through automatism and dreams. These artists also explored the ancient human past and what is termed as the 'primitive' unconscious.peer-reviewe

The re-emergence of the Great Mother Goddess

Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source to the universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist, Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is being expressed in all areas of life. Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on the archetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art, mythology and dreams. In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in every human psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This concept also belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess. The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness. The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from the dawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today.peer-reviewe

Malta : a tourism destination to the land of the Goddess

Malta, a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean is extremely rich in its Prehistoric archaeological heritage. Many tourists who visit Malta from all over the world are fascinated by the Prehistoric Temples and their artefacts. This paper shows the ways in which contemporary archaeologists, writers, and artists interpret Neolithic symbolism, particularly the images of Neolithic Goddesses found in various temples on the islands. The well preserved state of the Maltese Temples and their artefacts and their beauty, still attract pilgrims coming from all over the world to visit the Maltese Neolithic Temples – the places for ancient Goddess worship. The description and some interpretation of the temples and Goddess statues and statuettes shed light on the hypothesis that the Goddess representation was a strong symbol of a fertility cult which existed on the islands thousands of years ago. The Prehistoric Goddess remains an important figure of cultural tourism in Malta.peer-reviewe

The primitivism debate and modern art

Supposedly ‘primitive’ works of art in their various forms always had a great appeal in Western culture. Since the eighteenth century (and also before) there has been a consistent tendency in European Art and Literature to attribute superior virtue to primitive people. In this paper I will introduce first the notion of primitivism and the theoretical aspects presented by two American scholars, Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas who became the pioneers of the history and theorisation of primitivism when they published their seminal work on Classical literature and philosophy, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, (1935). I will also discuss the central question why modern artists turned to primitive art for inspiration. And I will be referring to the seminal work published by Robert Goldwater in 1938, Primitivism in Modern Art. Although Goldwater seemed to be more concerned with the thematic approach, he stressed a common characteristic of primitivism in modern art, namely the search for ‘simplicity’. The controversial exhibition, “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1984 helps us to understand better the difference between works created by the ‘primitives’ and the works made by modern artists within a different context. The ‘Primitive’ is not only found in modern art but also traced in other categories like the art of children, peasants, and the insane and even women.peer-reviewe

The artist-shaman and primitivism

One may ask: What is the relationship between shamanic artists and contemporary artists working on prehistoric models? Few recognise that the relationship actually is very important. I feel that many contemporary artists use traditional shamanic techniques to achieve the spiritual and metaphysical content in their work. It has been said that certain works by individual artists could heal or benefit an audience of viewers or an entire community. Unfortunately few artists regarded prehistoric and other forms of ‘primitive’ art with a potent shamanic content. Many are more interested in the formal aspect. Some of these artists engage themselves in private and painful ‘vision quests’ in their secular search for the sacred. This is why I see that an aspect of Shamanism is being practised today by some contemporary artists, in order to restore and show society the lost spiritual visions of life. One has also to keep in mind that a number of artists are not conscious of themselves as being ‘shamans’ and those who relate to this shamanic quest may at times use shamanic imagery without being aware of its content.peer-reviewe

Jungian aesthetics : a reconsideration

Psychoanalysis has now been established as another aspect of art criticism. Amongst many writers who attempted to create a theory of Aesthetics is the Swiss psychiatrist, and father of analytical psychology, Carl Jung. Unlike Freud, Jung did not see art structured along sexual lines but in archetypes, which may be those of the collective or personal unconscious. For him art was a creative process not a neurosis. In his theory of aesthetics Jung established that the artist expresses archetypes consciously or unconsciously.peer-reviewe

The ‘Goddess’ and contemporary spiritual values

In this paper we are going to see how ancient goddesses became very popular with many female artists, musicians and writers. Some made use of the goddess to express their own personal emotions, others to express a link with the past, so to entrench a national identity with the prehistoric ancestors, while others used the symbol of the goddess as a significant political ramification for the feminist movement. I am not going to get into a detailed and at times controversial debate of how strong the symbol of the Mother Goddess became for feminists. My interest lies precisely on how certain female artists interpreted the use of the symbol of the Mother Goddess in their work and how it is linked with a primitivistic attitude.peer-reviewe

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass