Scratching the surface: Exploring the body as self

The rationale for this project is entitled “Scratching the Surface: exploring the body as self”. This body of work involves scratching the surface and erasure in drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics. I am engaging with different surfaces and grounds using different tools to scratch back into the surface, such as erasers, scrapers palette knives, and clay tools. The process of scratching the surface is more important than the product, which is an integral part of my practice. My bodily orientation whilst making these works employs a frontal, vertical, upright orientation in front of the easel, and horizontality on the floor of the studio using a stick as an extension of the body. I use a mirror as a reflective device to record my face and head as part of the body. The concept of the body as self is adapted from the writings of Jean- Paul Sartre (1943), as cited in Synnott, 1992, p. 100).Central to this project, is the development of my method of artmaking, what I call Reflective Phenomenology. This is a combination of reflexivity (Pierce 1868, Archer, 2013) and Merleau-Ponty's (1962) phenomenology. I am incorporating reflexive activities, where inner dialogues and reflections on the process is recorded and serve to document my way of working. The inner dialogue, questioning, answering, and self-talk leads not only leads to new actions but growth and transformation. I am engaging phenomenologically with my body, interacting with other bodies, surfaces, and tools performed in the studio as a way of representing self. I am calling this body art because the presence of the artist body and the actions performed by the body is the focus of my work (Marsh, 1993). My approach is informed by an embodied, phenomenological model of intersubjectivity (Jones, 1997) between my body as the subject and object in self-portraiture which I call body art.  In body art, there is a blurring of live art and performance boundaries where I am artist as the subject and object (Jennifer Parker-Starbuck and Roberta Mock, 2013). My body art performance that is recorded and made in the studio, where the body performs my practice and presented to an audience later in the form of artworks. The body not only leaves its trace, but I am communicating how the body feels in place and time. This project will contribute to the field of body art in Australian art. 

CHRIS ABRAHAMS

Born 1965       Mob: 0477043487     Email: chrisabrahams@hotmail.com  

EDUCATION 

2018- 2022                            Doctor of Creative Arts , University of Southern       Queensland                                                                                                 

2014-2015                            M Arts (Visual Arts) University of Southern Queensland

1983-1986                            Bachelor of Education (Art), University of New South Wales                      

 EXHIBITIONS and publications 

●     2023 "Portrait of an artist" Art Edit magazine #37 Spring 2023

• • 2022 "Graduart" USQ Arts Gallery, Toowoomba, Qld.

  • 2021" Cracking the Mirror Stage: Self-portraiture, Cam Robertson Gallery, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.

  • 2019 “Scratching the Surface” Solo Exhibition, USQ Arts Gallery, Toowoomba, Qld. 

●      2018 Phd/DCA Exhibition, Foyer Galley, USQ, Toowoomba, Qld.

●      2016 50-50 Impressions, Impress Gallery, Kedron, Qld.

●      2015 Gippsland Print Award, Sale, Vic.

●        2015 Graduart Exhibition, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Qld.

●        2015 GraduArt Exhibition, Foyer Gallery, USQ, Toowoomba, Qld.

●        2014 Significant Sites, Solo exhibition, Crows Nest Regional Art Gallery. Crows Nest, Qld

●        2013 “Visit to Cambodia ” Solo exhibition, Meta House, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

●        2009 “Harbours of Life” Solo Exhibition, Randel Art Studio, Brisbane Botanical Gardens, Brisbane.

●        2006 Café Arts, Solo exhibition, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia.

●        2005 “Soulscapes” Solo Exhibition, CPM Workshop Gallery, Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia

●      1990 Hugo Galleries, Manuka, ACT, Australia.

●        1990 Fremantle Annual Print Award, Fremantle, WA, Australia.

●      1989 Social Images, Australian Labor Party, ACT Branch, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

●      1990-92 Sun, Smoke and Steel, National Touring Exhibition, East coast Australia.

●      1989 Capital Art Exhibition and Acquisition Artbank, Australian Government, Canberra, ACT, Australia

●      1988 Studio One exhibition, Canberra, ACT, Australia

●      1987 MPAC Prints exhibition, Mornington, Vic, Australia

●      1987 Douglas Art Award Exhibition, Paddington, NSW, Australia

●        1982 ArtExpress, HSC Travelling Exhibition and Acquisition, Sydney, NSW.

●      1979- 80 STAR programme, Liverpool, NSW.

AWARDS

●        1998 Queensland Independent Education Union ‘Our Oceans’ Highly Commended Award, Spring Hill, QLD, Australia

●        2003 “Road to Recovery” Exhibition, Highly Commended Award, Road to Recovery Exhibition, Gold Coast, 2003

●        2003 CPM National Print Prize Members award, CPM, Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.

●        2005 CPM National Print Prize Highly Commended Award, Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW, Australia.

Artworks to be included in the exhibition 

Image of the artist 

Art works to be presented similar to my solo  exhibition 

My way of working