Introduction: Mapping Gwen John: Lives, Lines and Images

Nomadic Narratives, Visual Forces explores issues, questions, and problems emerging in the analysis of epistolary and visual narratives. This book focuses in particular on Gwen John's letters and paintings. It offers an innovative theoretical approach to narrative analysis by drawing on Foucault's theory of power, Deleuze and Guattari's analytics of desire, and Cavarero's concept of the narratable self. Furthermore, it examines the use of letters as documents of life in narrative research and highlights the dynamics of spatiality in the constitution of the female self in art. This study brings together theoretical insights that emerge from the analysis of life documents - some of them previously unpublished - combining innovative research with specific methodological suggestions on doing narrative analysis.

Bodily Experience and Restricted Conditions in Contemporary Art

The Doctoral research was carried out with the primary purpose of reviewing past practice designs and for identifying how body movements contributes to these designs. The context in which the body movements are understood are that of discipline enforced by culture and other physio-biological restraints. A discussion on the relationships of body experience in restricted conditions are carried out, which includes the interaction between movement and space in the application of painting, moulding, biological markers, and moving images. The discipline, socially acceptable practices and regulations present in the researcher’s personal life and culture frame the artworks and a fascinating exploration of dynamics between freedom of movement in artwork construction and restrain of behaviour has been analyzed. In the process of art production, significant points discussed were with respect to the identification, succession and repetition of habitual acts. In addition, bodily movement could be considered as a synthesis of spatiality and temporality. The key point which contains the elements of time and space remains relevant to my creative practice and theoretical research. The core interest of my practice is in understanding the settings and simple rules for bodily movement, which is inspired by the past and forms a possible creation for the future. In this research, the attempt was not to display a comprehensive understanding on how body influences the design of art but rather to explain how understanding body movements provides a trace of my works, from origin, the working process and to completion. Relevant artworks and reflection of personal experiences are discussed as needed to help the reader gain more insight on the interactions of body in art creations.