Relational Viewing: Affect, Trauma and the Viewer in Contemporary Autobiographical Art (original) (raw)
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The curator of MOCA Taipei's exhibition, Rosa's Wound, used Paul Celan's poem to name the exhibition, which showcased artworks by artists from various Asian countries to discuss the relationship between art and trauma. The background of these artworks involved a wide range of issues, including the history of martial law, political prisoners, colonization, suppression, racial violence, and war. Without any knowledge of the background and context of these ideas, the general audience would have difficulties understanding the purpose of such an exhibition as well as the curatorial efforts made in the process. In this article, I have sorted out the development and trends of trauma studies in recent years, and proposed that the concept of the "post-trauma era" could help us contextualize this exhibition and gain a better understanding. Modern History and the History of Trauma Etymologically speaking, the English word "trauma" comes from Greek, originally meaning "wound," especially one that penetrates the body. The word was first used in psychology in the nineteenth century to refer to shocking experiences in modern life (such as the shock suffered by WWI soldiers in the battlefield), in which the mind's protective mechanism that was supposed to function like a shield was "penetrated" due to excessive external stimulation. 1 From the psychoanalytical perspective, trauma falls into the domain of the "Thing," which cannot be objectified. "The 'Thing' is traumatic and brings pain. We do not know where it causes pain, or even that it causes pain. It strives to be known by the mind, but fails, and can only be temporarily liberated in symptomatic repetitions." 2 The British art historian, Griselda Pollock, has dedicated her recent years to the study of the relationship between trauma and art by adopting psychoanalytical points of view (especially Israeli psychoanalyst Bracha L. Ettinger's revisions of Lacan's theory). Pollock concluded her study in 2013 and stated five characteristics of trauma: 1. Trauma seems to exist in a non-temporal, non-spatial realm: it exists permanently and is non-temporal. Like a stranger that lives in the mind, it colonizes the host. The 1 Griselda Pollock, Afetr-affects/After-images: Trauma and aesthetic transformation in the virtual feminist museum, Manchester: Manchester, UP, 2013, p. 2. 2 Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, " Traumatic Wit(h)ness – and Martrixial Co/in-habit(u)ating " , parallax, vol. 5 no. 1, 1999, p. 89.
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