Embodied Self-portraiture Research Project
Embodied self-portraiture is currently experiencing a moment of emergence within the broader field of embodied practices, shaped by the work of artists such as Sharna Barker, Jo Fong, Seke Chimutengwende, and many others. The boundaries of what constitutes embodied and moving self-portraiture are actively being explored and redefined through live art performances and gallery exhibitions. This marks an exciting shift in the field, one that foregrounds the curation of embodied and living arts practices by and about the female embodied subject within gallery spaces. This research engages with these developments to investigate the philosophical dimensions of women’s self-actualisation through the lens of embodied self-portraiture. Re-examining what it means to have an embodied and material led practice. Acknowledging the body as both the site and source of knowledge as well as a material of the practice.
Facing a Moving Target. Pastels on Paper, 2025.
The research is currently divided into four research stages
Creating a Model of Embodied Self-portraiture: utilizing techniques of somatic observation, self-creation is explored in a durational practice-as-research component that explored art objects and artifacts as self-reflexive and self-actualising.
Lecture-Performance: Critiquing contemporary conceptualizations of self-actualisation.
Participant Research: exploring women's pathways and barriers to self-actualising through an arts-practice and qualitative data collection.
Embodied Self-portraiture Exhibition: exploring way to curate embodied female self-portraits within gallery and traditional observation spaces.
