AbstractsPsychology

This research project is about poetic displacement. The reference here is to the hope and possibilities associated with the specific peaceful voluntary act of displacement (migration) as opposed to forced exile. The poetic also pays homage to the whimsical: the visionaries, the dreamers, the ambitious: these are those who seek to migrate. My personal experiences of migrating journeys inform this research, which is expressed in an installation-based practice. While one might associate movement and change with ideas of migration and displacement, there is, as writer Pico Iyer suggests, an underlying desire for seeking home in stillness and contemplation, accommodating the soul as one’s own portable home. In exploring the complex discourse of migration and displacement, a subtle shift has occurred; ideas of home, suspension, shadow, place and experience have emerged as a contemplative response, woven from those initial parameters. The realm of this research is therefore focussed on a conception of space that celebrates these more ephemeral qualities, in order to consider an installation that is experiential rather than representative. This research utilises an action-based learning approach: the work is based on a theoretical premise and unfolds from a direct engagement with the material. Development of my practice is underpinned by cycles of defining, generating and refining. The outcome is a series of installations as a response to home, place and yearning of the human spirit.