Update on Studio Practice 2

Since my last post, I have researched into the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake who effortlessly defamiliarized in his poetry yet wasn't originally appreciated during his lifetime.

It was his original outlook on art and what he deemed inspiring that caused him not to follow the mould of society and what was unquestionably accepted within the art world. He was famously inspired by visions which he claimed to see since childhood which progressed into adulthood, but to society, visions were not seen as ‘normal’ behaviour which could be the reasoning why he was not taken seriously as an artist in his time due to his associations with angelic visualizations.

The strong mythical undertones in Blake’s work resulted in a negative reaction - the audience was unable to realise the impact that the effects of defamiliarization could have upon their lives and the importance that perception has on an individual’s outlook on life and resulted in his appreciation largely occurring after his death. This then makes me question that society longs to have something different, as during his life time it was his dissimilar outlook on life that resulted in an unappreciative nature towards his work, but after his death society realised there was no one else like Blake and realised that the ability to see the potential in everything was indefinitely a great talent. Due to the fact that things become automatic in life when we encounter it more than once as the aspect of wonder is removed, could be the reasoning why defamiliarization in life is often longed for.

This effect results in a complete revaluation of something which is of no great importance, until it is viewed in another way which Blake is most famous for in his opening verse of “Auguries of Innocence.”

“To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour”.

This verse is an iconic example of the value in defamiliarization which Blake recognised, and evidently appreciated; seeing the unfamiliar in the familiar. Being able to see what necessarily is not evident at first glance creates an altogether new awareness of life itself as we are able to appreciate the value of ‘making strange’.

Since researching into William Blake and many romantic revolutionaries such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Charlotte Smith, I felt I should move on by researching into how the topic of defamiliarization is handled in the contemporary art scene by analysing a range of artists who tackle the theme in varying ways and methods.