Lataa ilmaiseksi

ABSTRACT
A magical picture – Ritualistic
behavior in visual arts
This study explores ritualistic behavior during the creation of visual artworks.
The hypothesis was that the creation of visual artworks falls within
the sphere of ritualistic behavior. The study asked what emotions an artist
experiences during creative activities and in what forms ritualistic behaviors
manifest themselves in art and artistic work. The study explores these questions
through the author’s own artistic work and experiences gained from
the world of visual arts.
A belief that it is difficult to experience something without making pictures
yourself has led the author to selecting his own artistic work as one of
the channels through which information was collected. The aim was to figure
out what happens in an artist’s mind when creating art by observing and
writing down what is experienced during the creation of the artistic work.
For the purposes of this study, artistic work includes the actual making of
a picture as well as the related preparations and the subsequent exhibitions.
The artistic work was divided into two parts - drawing and painting. A series
of pictures was drawn for an exhibition held at the Lönnström Art Museum
in 2004 and a series of paintings were completed and displayed at Galleria
Huuto that same year.
The most significant theorists for the study, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917),
Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) and Mary Douglas (1921–2007), provided an insight
into understanding, observing and categorizing ritualistic behavior. The
frame of reference for the studied phenomenon was the world of visual arts in
Finland during the early 2000s. In order to gain enough distance from one’s
own artistic work in terms of interpretation, the impact of ritualistic behavior
on the world of visual arts must first be understood. This made it easier
to understand the wider contexts within the artistic work.
The study showed that both the world of visual arts and the artistic work
of an individual artist contain ritualistic behavior in many different forms.
It showed that archaic ways of thinking and acting have a hidden effect on
the world of visual arts and the creation of art. The results of the study could
be utilized to produce further studies, as part of visual arts education and in
the field of art therapy.
Keywords: ritualistic behavior, artistic work, experience, world
of visual arts
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