This installation presents fragments of my own artworks, spanning the years from kindergarten to university, transferred onto ceramic and bound with thread.
Like one of the BA Fine Art students in Sarah Rowles’ EdD research, who was concerned that her parents would dislike her ‘contemporary’ art work in her degree show, I have reflected on how my own journey has been shaped by my parents’ values. In my early education, technical drawing skills aligned with their expectations. However, as I moved to university in another country and embraced contemporary practices, my work shifted away from painting and drawing. This caused tension; my parents were disappointed and even considered not supporting my studies.
This experience significantly influenced my initial decision to return to traditional drawing skills in my Master's project at IoE. However, I began to reflect on how their values and criticisms had affected me.
Michel Foucault’s (1977) statement that ‘power is everywhere... because it comes from everywhere,’ is deeply relevant to my research. He explores how power operates not through force, but through discipline and surveillance. In art education, visibility plays a key role in shaping artistic behaviour. My work has always been subject to critique by family, tutors, peers, and the invisible structures of curriculum, assessment, and artistic norms.
This constant observation produced a form of internalised pressure: I began to create not from personal freedom, but from a desire to meet certain expectations, aesthetic values, or conceptual norms. In this sense, my artistic identity would always be shaped by these diffuse forces of power.
These fragments represent a decision not yet made but the possibility of many choices still open to me. This work invites reflection on how power circulates within art education, shaping not only what is made, but who we become as artists.
Reference
Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon Books.
This experience significantly influenced my initial decision to return to traditional drawing skills in my Master's project at IoE. However, I began to reflect on how their values and criticisms had affected me.
Michel Foucault’s (1977) statement that ‘power is everywhere... because it comes from everywhere,’ is deeply relevant to my research. He explores how power operates not through force, but through discipline and surveillance. In art education, visibility plays a key role in shaping artistic behaviour. My work has always been subject to critique by family, tutors, peers, and the invisible structures of curriculum, assessment, and artistic norms.
This constant observation produced a form of internalised pressure: I began to create not from personal freedom, but from a desire to meet certain expectations, aesthetic values, or conceptual norms. In this sense, my artistic identity would always be shaped by these diffuse forces of power.
These fragments represent a decision not yet made but the possibility of many choices still open to me. This work invites reflection on how power circulates within art education, shaping not only what is made, but who we become as artists.
Reference
Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon Books.