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Identity is in part defined as the condition of being oneself, and not another. But for an individual positioned marginally in a culture, for an individual defined as “other,” identity is often fragmented or fractured. The very notion of “other” defies or contradicts the idea of identity. In addressing the idea of identity development and the fragmented self, we explore the multiple responses of an artist to the question, “who am I?”
In her 1998 book “Feminist Thought,” Rosemarie Tong rephrases in postmodern terms Simone de Beauvoir’s essential question of feminist theory, “Why is woman the other?” “ Postmodern feminists take de Beauvoir’s understanding of otherness and turn it on its head. Woman is still the other, but rather than interpreting this condition as something to be transcended, postmodern feminists proclaim its advantages. The conition of otherness enables women to stand back and criticize the norms, values, and practices that the dominant patriarchal culture seeks to impose on everyone, including those who live on its periphery…Thus, otherness, for all of its associations with oppression and inferiority, is much more than an oppressed, inferior condition. It is also a way of being, thinking, and speaking that allows for openness, plurality, diversity, and difference…It is enormously appealing to be an outsider – to be uncorrupted by the system, to see and feel what other people do not see and feel, to be free of tight constraints and unnecessary restrictions. But it is equally appealing to be an insider – to be a valued member of the team, to share a common vision, to have, as Aristotle said, ‘partners in virtue and friends in action.’”
Culture makes the nation. The arts are part of a single symbolic expressive logic that is in the closest possible connection with the identity of a nation.... The critical, self-critical consciousness of the artist who deserves the name contributes to the giving shape to identity. It is capable of opposing the challenge of foreign and universal models of rhetoric, so characteristic of our age in which reciprocal communications are constantly on the rise. It creatively alters these models or, in contact with them, creates new views of tradition, thus enriching them.- Iwan Bala
Ivor John Davies "Summer: The Childhood of Pryderi" 1994. Tempera & Crayon on Fabriano Paper. 39½ x 27½" The Becca group – Paul davies /Iwan Bala
Returned parquetBelize, Central America 1999 Originally from Pembrokeshire, Tim Davies now lives and space, often embracing the notion of multiplicity. Many of his works, such as Burnt Wall, Matted and Tatters are one-offs, destroyed at the end of the exhibition period. The impulse behind much of his work derives from an engagement with political and cultural issues. It has been acclaimed for combining these interests with aesthetic and formal concerns. Tim Davies has exhibited widely throughout Britain and internationally, including Hong Kong, Australia, Croatia, Poland, he arranged for the shipment of 150 year old mahogany parquet blocks from Wales back to Belize, where he laid them to rest in the rain forest. In parenthesis Estonia 1994
