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September 28, 2005
Mimesis vs. Social Construction
If we represented the material world simply through mirroring it, mimesis, then nothing in this world would have any meaning because we would not be adhering our cultural identities to the world. Art can be viewed as only the subject it is depicting but generally it is not because as the viewer we perceive it with knowledge and experience from our societies and cultures and we also try to view it as the artist wants us to view it and to see the deeper meaning behind the canvas or stone. Our cultures determine how we view the material world as social constructionism argues. This post brings to mind the art class I am currently taking, Museum Art. In the second chapter of my textbook, there is the painting The Portrait of Giovanni, Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami. The Arnolfini Marriage by the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck from 1434. This painting depicts a man and a woman standing very prim and proper in a richly adorned bedroom, hands outreached and barely touching, and there is a small dog on the floor between them. Now if I were looking at this painting from a mimesis standpoint, I would see it literally: as a man and a woman about to be married or already married. However, the book explains the cultural significance of the painting and that the painting was not merely created to show a married couple. For example, the groom has his shoes removed which, according to the book, is a reference to God's commandment to Moses to take off his shoes when standing on holy ground and the dog is associated with faithfulness and marital fidelity. I found it particularily interesting that in Arabic culture dogs are traditionally viewed as dirty and degrading which affirms we view the world through social constructionalist concepts rather than mimesis. To me, mimesis sounds entirely too objective. We use our past experiences and culture to formulate judgements everyday on people, places, objects. We put meaning to everything we see from our social and cultural backgrounds.
Posted by lcisfreya at September 28, 2005 10:18 PM