An exploration of absence and presence through the mediums of bronze, glass and resin figurative sculpture, within a narrative of memory

Abstract

This research study was based upon three critical components. These include absence and presence, memory and the female nude. The problem statement aimed to determine how compositionally sound pairings and groupings of bronze, glass and resin figurative sculptures may be manipulated to create visual equilibrium in a work and communicate an inherent conceptual element. This necessitated the following research question which explored what the role of memory and the imago is within dualistic representations of the absent and present, as represented in the mediums of bronze, glass and resin. The creative and research processes culminate in the body of artwork, entitled Absence and Presence: in Search of Memory and the Imago, which is presented as a narrative installation and exhibition of sculptural work. This body of work was driven by the creation of a signifier and allegory for an absent presence or present absence which will always evoke the contemplation of this interplay between these two terms and the ways in which they define and become one another within the narrative of personal memory. Personal memories will always collide with the present and bring with them the memories of absence, but encourage the subject to make tangible this absence in order to confront it and in doing so, realise that it cannot be addressed separately from the presence which defines i