Introduction
The infant at birth perceives itself to be one with its mother, but the process of becoming an individual requires a separation from the common cutaneous interface. French psychoanalyst and author of Skin-Ego i Didier Anzieu (1923-1999) describes the common cutaneous interface as a wrapping, a “one-skin” (Anzieu 1989:103).
The wrapping which I shared with my mother from before birth is the foundation of my work and how the process of separation exposes the idea of one-skin. In an attempt to resolve the separations, there are relational tensions in the process of bringing the parts together which exist separately, hence the title of the work A Part Apart. The bond, closeness and distance between my mother and myself is a product of human subjectivity that remains in flux and is experienced throughout life. My body is its own one-skin but still a part of my mother’s skin. Contemporary cultural theory researcher and theorist Marc Lafrance (2009:19) states that human subjectivity is “completely psychic, utterly somatic, essentially intersubjective and intercorporeal, constantly changing … and fundamentally located in space and time”.
Anzieu’s Skin-Ego theory builds on psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) idea that “the ego is a mental projection of the surface of the body” (Anzieu 2016:26). Anzieu opened up new ways of thinking about subjectivity, creating a framework for making sense of the self through the process of individualisation and differentiation from the psychic apparatus of the mother (1993:40). Through the art-making process I examine my intersubjective and intracorporeal relationship with my mother through the disengagement and lifelong process of separations. Recent research on filial relationships between adult children and their aging parents focuses on attachment theory. Researcher David Shemmings (2006:177-187) indicates that filial attachments are bi-directional where this relational dynamic undergoes a yearning to attain secure filial attachment.
Media and Technique
I experimented with various materials used in the construction of dressmaker’s basic pattern piecesii. I used the pattern pieces to represent parts of a whole; they exist separately but together they complete a garment. Clothes are seen as a natural extension of the body, according to cultural studies researcher Stella North (2013:69). Personally, the basic pattern piecesiii are representative of my mother’s labours. She would wrap me, in the literal sense, with clothes that she made herself, using pattern pieces to trace onto fabric. In the creation of the dressmaker’s pattern pieces a beeswax medium was used which consisted of beeswax, micro-crystal wax and damar crystals.iv This medium is soft and malleable with a smooth waxy surface feel that still holds its shape. It can be both glossy or matt, depending on the method used. The non-woven lightweight vilene was the base fabric onto which the beeswax medium was poured. Vilene is used in clothing construction as an interfacing that provides shape and support to a garment. I used basic dressmaker’s pattern pieces as templates and cut them from hardboard for the silicon mould making. The moulds were the frame to cast the pattern pieces. Pigmented hot beeswax medium was poured into the mould containing the vilene, thus folding and wrinkling the vilene in the process. Close-up printed photographs of both myself and my mother’s body were transferred onto either side of the wax pattern pieces, to create an imprint. The subtle translucent quality of the finished pattern pieces reveals the image on either side when held against the light. The transfer process required intensive rubbing to transfer the printed image onto the beeswax pattern piece and when it was set I wet the print to soften and break the paper bonds. For the imprint to work, rigorous rubbing and buffing was required.
Conclusion
The wrapping that held me as one-skin with my mother was pulled apart through a process of separations which was necessary for the individuation process, the development of the skin-ego. The fluid nature of human subjectivity creates an open-ended process for rectification where the tensional stress between the bond and the separations, of being a part but remaining apart, is the core of the relational stress that exists to reconcile the parts.
Endnotes
i Anzieu, D. 2016. The Skin-Ego: A new translation by Naomi Segal. London: Karnac Books.
ii Basic pattern pieces in women’s clothing constitute of five basic pattern pieces namely, a bodice front, a bodice back, a sleeve and a fitted skirt front and back.
iii The pattern pieces speaks of my mother, as she made most of our clothing and bought every issue of the Burda Magazine which contained patterns to make clothing.
iv Damar crystals also known as damar gum is obtained from tapping trees and serves as a hardening.