Archetypal Identities, Symbolism [+Dolls]
‘think’ with your instincts
Historical Context
Dolls have been a part of
humankind since prehistoric times.
Used to depict religious figures or
used as playthings, early dolls were
probably made from raw materials
such as clay, fur, or wood.
Webster's New World
Dictionarydescribes a doll as - "a
child's toy, puppet, marionette, etc.
made to resemble a human being."
Doll made of ivory, Roman era
2nd and 3rd centuries A.D
Background on Dolls
•
As far back as we can go in time, dolls have been a part of human imagination. Sometimes votive figures,
sometimes toys or collectibles, they survived fashion trends through the ages, pleasing all those who
cherished and still cherish them.
•
In fact, dolls were born long before they were given the french name of «poupée» (doll), which probably
comes from the latin words «puppa» or «pupa» that mean «tétines, sein» (nipples, breast). Although it is
difficult to define the doll's origin, a few ancient objects coming of Antiquity tell us that dolls were part of
Greeks and Romans lives at this era.
•
Most of the time, these small rudimentary shaped wooden or clay figures were religious objects. Some were
even laid down with mummies in burial place. In Greece, for instance, jointed dolls were found in temples
dedicated to goddesses Demeter and Persephone . Such dolls were also found in Egyptian's temples.
•
Dolls have featured in modern art and fine art photography, notably in surrealist works.
Materials
•
Following the era of the ancient dolls, Europe became a major hub for doll production. These dolls were primarily made of wood.
Primitive wooden stump dolls from 16th and 17th century England number less than 30 today. The Grodnertal area of Germany
produced many peg wooden dolls, a type of doll that has very simple peg joints and resembles a clothespin.
•
An alternative to wood was developed in the 1800s. Composition is a collective term for mixtures of pulped wood or paper that
were used to make doll heads and bodies. These mixtures were molded under pressure, creating a durable doll that could be
mass produced. Manufacturers closely guarded the recipes for their mixtures, sometimes using strange ingredients like ash or
eggshells. Papier-mache, a type of composition, was one of the most popular mixtures.
•
In addition to wooden dolls, wax dolls were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Munich was a major manufacturing center
for wax dolls, but some of the most distinctive wax dolls were created in England between 1850 and 1930. Wax modelers would
model a doll head in wax or clay, and then use plaster to create a mold from the head. Then they would pour melted wax into the
cast. The wax for the head would be very thin, no more than 3 mm. One of the first dolls that portrayed a baby was made in
England from wax at the beginning of the 19th century.
•
http://ctdollartists.com/history.htm
Venus de Willendorf
Venus of Willendorf c. 24,000-22,000 BCE Oolitic limestone 43/8 inches (11.1 cm) high (Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna)
An example of the feminine archetype from 24,000-22,000 BCE
When first discovered the Venus of Willendorf was thought to date to approximately 15,000 to 10,000 BCE, or more or less to the same period as the cave
paintings at Lascaux in France. In the 1970s the date was revised back to 25,000-20,000 BCE, and then in the 1980s it was revised again to c. 30,00025,000 BCE. A study published in 1990 of the stratigraphic sequence of the nine superimposed archaeological layers comprising the Willendorf deposit,
however, now indicates a date for the Venus of Willendorf of around 24,000-22,000 BCE.
Ancient Dolls
An ancient ivory, jointed doll
Archeological evidence places dolls as foremost candidate for oldest known toy, having been found in Egyptian tombs which
date to as early as 2000 BC. In Egypt, as well as Greece and Rome, it was common to find them in the graves of children.
Most were made of wood, although pottery dolls were buried with children from wealthier families. Dolls with movable limbs
and removable clothing date back to 200 BCE.
Looking for the Psychological Roots of the Artform
Saying more than Playing with Dolls
http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/2007/03/index.html
Bruce Nabegeyo, Two Brothers – Kinga and Burrar, 2007, natural ochres on Arches paper
Emotional Analogues
Analogues comes from Analogy … meaning a
similarity in some respects between things that are
otherwise dissimilar
admiration
desire
exhilaration
impatience
relief
despair
expectation
indifference
remorse
desperation
fascination
indignation
resentment
determination
fear
infatuation
respect
disappointment
frustration
jealousy
revenge
anticipation
disbelief
greed
joy
serenity
anxiety
disgust
grief
loneliness
shame
disillusionment
guilt
lust
shock
eagerness
hatred
mischief
sorrow
embarrassment
hope
panic
suspicion
enthusiasm
hopelessness
pity
sympathy
contempt
envy
horror
pride
terror
curiosity
exaltation
humiliation
rage
love
defiance
exasperation
hysteria
regret
confusion
adoration
amazement
ambition
Examine the words listed in the table of emotional
traits.
These are by no means exhaustive so please add
your own
Shade in boxes from the table to indicate your
dominant emotional traits
anger
awe
bewilderment
boredom
compassion
Each of these emotions will have a visual analogue
specific to your experience; eg Joy may be
represented as bright, vibrant yellow, Anger as
heavy dark grey. This can be taken further to
include the style, direction, pressure etc of the
mark that you use to represent the emotion.
sadness
Without drawing representational ‘pictures’ of the
emotions, represent 3 of the dominant ones you
have chosen as analogies for your won dominant
traits.
Explore these in as many different ways as
possible to create a vocabulary of analogous
marks
Archetypes
http://www.getguerilla.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18
http://natureofpersonality.com/archetypes.html
The Wise Fool
Jungian Psychology ~ Carl Jung’s Ideas on the Archetype
Take the Jungian Personality Test ~
http://similarminds.com/cgi-bin/newmb.pl
Jungian psychology regards human development as a journey or quest in which the soul goes in search of itself. Self-realization, also referred to as self-actualization or
individuation, refers to the idea of wholeness in which the personality is integrated and in which the various aspects of personality work together toward a common goal,
rather than working at cross-purposes.
Embracing the various aspects of the self into a totality involves an inner journey that many people never begin, much less complete. But every person, and every fictional
character, is presented with many opportunities to embark on that journey.
Of what does this Quest consist? In literature, the romantic narrative pattern involves a Quest that begins with a perilous journey, usually initiated by a trial or conflict, and
which initiation involves both a departure and entry occasioning the advent of the Hero (Frye). A series of preliminary adventures occur as the Hero matures and
progresses in his Quest. These adventures lead to a crucial struggle between the Hero and his Foe, in which one or both must die or in which the Hero descends into the
underworld. His death or descent is followed by his exaltation-possibly even resurrection-and return.
The archetypal journey of analytical psychology parallels the Quest of romance literature. The first step in the journey of wholeness begins with a confrontation of the real
self, as opposed to the persona, the mask we show the world. This confrontation initially involves a meeting with the primary archetype, the Shadow. After confronting
one’s own image in whatever mirror reflects it, and seeing what one has built so many resistances to seeing, a person discovers that the mirror is a door (much as in
Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass) behind which lurk mermaids, wood-nymphs, and even sirens-the anima for the male, and the animus for the female. These must be
incorporated before the journey can progress. This quest of the person culminates with a meeting of the Self, sometimes represented by the archetype of the Divine
Couple. Individuals who never complete the Quest may over-identify with an earlier archetype, leading to an over-development of that archetype’s qualities to the
detriment of the others-what Jung called neuroses or “complexes.”
INITIATION: THE SHADOW ARCHETYPE
The Shadow archetype is the elemental, foundational archetype representing all that is instinctual-the latent dispositions common to all men. Images portraying the
Shadow often involve the wilderness, the woods (full of dragons, ogres, and thieves), or the sea as a watery wilderness. Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus all met God
in the wilderness, which meetings served as their initiations into the mystery of self-realization.The Shadow is most easily observed in others because we project our
Shadow selves.
ADVENT OF THE HERO: ANIMA AND ANIMUS ARCHETYPES
Jung theorized four stages of the soul image’s evolution that are shared, more or less, by both anima and animus: the wholly physical, even wild, figure such as Tarzan or
Eve; the personality who possesses initiative and the capacity for planned action (a poet or philosopher, or an action-oriented figure like a warrior, hunter, etc. like Faust’s
Helen); the soul-image who becomes “word,” sometimes represented by a clergyman, teacher, or a great statesman or, if the anima, one like the Virgin Mary, who raises
eros to the heights of spiritual devotion; and, finally, “a mediator of the religious experience whereby life acquires new meaning,” exemplified by someone like Gandhi (if
animus) or the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon (if anima) (Jung, Symbols, 207).
THE GREAT MOTHER AND THE WISE OLD MAN ARCHETYPES
Men meet the Wise Old Man archetype, while women meet the Great Mother. The opposite-sex archetypes of anima and animus have given way to same-sex
archetypes, with whom the individual must make an alliance. These powerful archetypes are symbols of the power and wisdom that lie deep within our own psyches. If
the archetype’s qualities are embraced, they become part of a person’s consciousness and increase wisdom.
THE SELF
The ultimate pattern of wholeness for the person is the Self, which includes spirit, soul, and body.
http://eve3.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/once-upon-a-time-the-quest-2/
another ARCHETYPAL FEMALE IN MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION: THE
ANIMA AND THE MOTHER
Joseph Campbell
List 3 personal Heros
1.
•
A fundamental belief of Campbell's was that all spirituality is a search for the same basic,
unknown force from which everything came, within which everything currently exists, and
into which everything will eventually return. This elemental force is ultimately “unknowable”
because it exists before words and knowledge. Although this basic driving force cannot be
expressed in words, spiritual rituals and stories refer to the force through the use of
"metaphors" - these metaphors being the various stories, deities, and objects of spirituality
we see in the world. For example, the Genesis myth in the Bible ought not be taken as a
literal description of actual events, but rather its poetic, metaphorical meaning should be
examined for clues concerning the fundamental truths of the world and our existence.
•
Accordingly, Campbell believed the religions of the world to be the various, culturally
influenced “masks” of the same fundamental, transcendent truths. All religions, including
Christianity and Buddhism, can bring one to an elevated awareness above and beyond a
dualistic conception of reality, or idea of “pairs of opposites,” such as being and non-being,
or right and wrong. Indeed, he quotes in the preface of The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
"Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names."
•
Heroes were important to Campbell because, to him, they conveyed universal truths about
one's personal self-discovery and self-transcendence, one's role in society, and the
relationship between the two.
2.
3.
Identify the traits you
associate with each of them
1.
2.
3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
Fears also offer Insight
List 3 things you fear most
1.
•
•
•
2.
3.
•
Identify a colour to
•
symbolise each one
1.
2.
•
3.
Take the Inkblot Test
http://uk.tickle.com/test/inkblot.html
•
The confrontation with the shadow usually feels so restrictive because it is made up of all the
contents that we own but have repressed. Most of us repress some of the qualities we don’t allow
into the persona, the self we show the world.
We may be able to consciously choose when to use that hot temper and when not to; when to
cuss and when to withhold the curse. But most of our shadow contents are repressed; these
become part of our hidden dark side, hidden and dark because we keep it out of the light.
The shadow lies in the unconscious, but it is part of the psychic content closest to the ego and the
conscious world because it has once been, or could have been, conscious. However, it becomes
a threat to the person when we shut it away, forget it, and refuse to recognize it. Like a child
chained in a cage, it becomes more and more defiant, grows bigger and bigger, and eventually
demands a life of its own. Think of stories like Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Heart of
Darkness, Moby Dick; these are just a few examples of stories about how the shadow is has a life
of its own. If denied, it eventually becomes a self-willed autocrat over which we have no selfcontrol.
The task of the person on the quest of individuation is to stop identifying with the persona and to
consciously assimilate the shadow. One has arrived when she has an ego strong enough to
acknowledge both the persona and the shadow without identifying with either. This is easier said
than done, because we identify with our strengths, with what comes easily.
The shadow embodies all that is repressed, pushed aside, locked up, forgotten-not only the seven
deadly sins, but also the introvert’s extraversion, the intuitive’s sensing side, the thinker’s feeling
function, and the emotional person’s thinking side. The shadow contains what we left behind in
childhood, our wishes, and our dreams. Sometimes, like Peter Pan, we need someone to help us
by lovingly re-attaching our shadow.
Perhaps you will recognize your shadow contents in the movies you avidly watch again and again,
in your most favorite movies, books, or short stories, or in the art you hang on your walls. Have
you ever gone through a phase of watching a movie over and over again? Take a look at the
characters who are of the same gender as you: they may reveal hidden aspects of your shadow.
Likewise, fascinating figures of the opposite sex may well reveal aspects of your anima or animus
that long to be assimilated and used fully in your whole, individuated personality.
The best way to know how to switch is simply to say, “All right, all this does not mean anything to
me any more. Where in my past life is an activity that I feel I could still enjoy? An activity out of
which I could still get a kick?”
The Shadow: http://eve3.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/once-upon-a-time-shadow-3/
Dr Geri Olsen
Associate professor in the Psychology Department at Sonoma State University, where she will soon assume the role of
Department Chair. Geri teaches and leads workshops in the area of creativity and expressive arts. Geri points out that Dolls have
been a part of human existence for 25,000 years. From fertility rituals to child’s play, dolls have a central role in portraying the
story and values of a culture. The power of the doll is expanded as we move back in time and explore dolls with a cross-cultural
perspective. In that search, the importance of dolls in healing, rites of passage, and empowerment become evident. This
understanding of the historical and psychological role of dolls has created a revisioning of the influence of the doll. Dolls are used
often in sand tray work, hospital programs, and in educational programs for abusive parents, but very little is written about the
deeply evocative experience of making a doll. What power does the doll that we create have in revealing the images and narrative
of a person’s inner life? How could the doll capture and reflect a glimpse of the psyche? In Geri’s work with students and
therapists, dolls are created as mirrors of the self, as figures in a personal myth, and as allies, elders, healers and guides on the
path to authenticity and health. The doll narrates a deeply personal story from an adventure to the interior. Geri has integrated the
doll process into her work for 25 years and is the coordinator of a Doll Project that has included over 600 K-12 students. Here is a
link to a paper she wrote titled : Dolls Protection, Healing, Power and Play which appeared in the journal Somatics. I’ve also put
up some photos of dolls she and her students have made here .
Contemporary Dolls
Marina Bychkova
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/school.html#nog o
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/
Lawrence Ahvakana
Lawrence Ahvakana is an Inupiaq artist who draws on traditional forms, spiritual ideas, and inua imagery to make contemporary mythic art. Ahvakana was raised in
northern Alaska in a childhood deeply steeped in the traditions of his Inupiaq culture. He studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. His carvings, paintings, and multi-media art have been exhibited in museums and
galleries all across the United States. "Through my work," he says, Greenland_woman_by_lawrence_ahvakana_1 "I can express/create my ideas of tradition, those
feelings of being part of a society that's thousands of years old, with contemporary artist influences like Alan Houser, Fritz Sholder, Charles Lollama, Paul Klee,
Kandinsky and others. I continually gain insight, direction, and psychic or emotional strength through the stories of how the Inupiat defined their total subsistence
lifestyle with the shamanism, ceremony, and the natural cycles of Arctic living."
Mirka Mora
and her dolls
http://www.moragalleries.com.au/2004/mirka.html
A.Alvarez Jester
Sha Sha Higby
www.shashahigby.com/shashawork.htm
Harriet Dempsey Jones
archetypes
Lanah Heron
Identify the archetype operating here
Camilla Jones
Can you identify this archetype?
Joanne Kim
Can you create an archetypal story for this one?
Judy Watson …
“... seeing the country through my grandmother's eyes learning
about bush foods going back to the city and making work …”
Judy Watson 1991
In 1990 Judy Watson was able to fulfil her life-long dream of
researching her Aboriginal heritage by travelling to her grandmother's country of north-west Queensland. A direct descendant of
the Waanyi clan, Watson was born in 1959 at Mundubbera in the
coastal hinterland of Queensland. She grew up in Brisbane and
attended the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education,
Toowoomba, where she gained a Diploma of Creative Arts in
1979. After moving to Hobart in 1980 she graduated from the
University of Tasmania in 1982.
Subsequently Watson lectured at the Townsville College of TAFE
and tutored at the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education.
Red rock
from Crossroads: Millennium Portfolio of Australian Aboriginal Artists
1998 Brisbane
lithograph, printed in colour on paper
Gordon Darling Fund 1999
In exploring her background, Watson encountered many isolated
Aboriginal artists, and she has assisted them in gaining access to
art facilities. She has had numerous appointments throughout
Australia as an artist-in-residence, some of which have involved
establishing lithography workshops and courses. As winner of the
1995 Moët & Chandon Fellowship, Watson travelled to France in
1996; she later exhibited in Paris. She was also included in the
1997 Australian exhibit at the Venice Biennale.
Watson's Aboriginal heritage is reflected in her depictions of the
bone coffins which she encountered on visits to her grandmother's
country. Her prints have an ethereal quality: mystical figures,
caught in a spindrift; their form is unclear; a swirling, spiritual
http://www.nga.gov.au/landscapes/Wat.htm
mirage.
http://www.tolarnogalleries.com/judy-watson/
http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/indigenous_australian_art/judy_watson
Judy Watson
Viewers were able to trace Watson's development from the year she travelled to the
country of her grandmother's birthplace in north-west Queensland to the present. This
was a crucial decision as it is through her matrilineal heritage, the Waanyi people, that
Watson has chiefly drawn inspiration. A small lithograph of 1990 titled the guardians gives
an inkling of the potent connections Watson made with her Aboriginal heritage. The
shadowy figures emerging from a shimmering background are like ancestors standing as
witnesses in a dry and arid landscape.
Watson not only expresses her identity as an Aboriginal person and as a woman but she
is also fearless in taking a strong political stance. For example, the artist's recent portfolio
of prints on display titled a preponderance of aboriginal blood (2005) drew on documents
of not so long ago, such as the electoral enrolment statutes which classify whether a
person is a full-blood Aborigine (and therefore not entitled to vote) or a so-called 'halfcaste' (entitled to vote). Watson selected fragments of these official forms for duplication
and in the printing process splashed them with blood-like ink. This meant that the didactic
function of the portfolio is eloquent, yet muted; razor-sharp without posturing.
She is also an artist who conveys spiritual power across cultures and several of her works
in the exhibition brought Buddhist references together with Aboriginal spirituality. The belllike stupas in the painting big blue world with three stupas (2004), for instance, and the
beautifully resonant lithograph blue pools of 1996 - surely a pun on the heroic Blue Poles
by Pollock in Canberra? Watson produced the early prints herself until she realised that
master printers (such as Martin King and Basil Hall) gave her more freedom to
experiment and explore intricate processes.
The physical reality of her textured canvases corresponds to a rock face and the chine
colle, to the fineness of skin. With this exhibition, I was aware that Watson brings a
ruggedness of natural terrain into the museum and a sensuousness of the body. But in
acknowledging this context, she also asserts issues of how her indigenous ancestors
have been traditionally categorised and collected (with anthropomorphic specimens and
ceremonial objects). There were etchings with titles such as our hair in your collections
(1997). Visual expressions of identity, of place, of country, of transformation and liberation
were presented as a continuum in this important survey
http://www.northerneditions.com.au/gallery/album12
Artlink Article http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2756
Examine the Symbolic Context
This is a highly symbolic work using colour, shape, line, form, pattern, movement,
balance and contrast to convey a visual story. Consider each of these elements and write
about what it represent to you?
Judy Watson Vessel
etching image size 31 x 45 cm Edition Size 30
http://www.northerneditions.com.au/gallery/album12
Examine some Symbolic Works
This is a symbolic work using colour, shape, line, form, pattern, movement,
balance and contrast to convey a visual story. Consider each of these
elements and write about what it represent to you?
Another Image to Investigate
Respond to this image as you did the previous one
Sally Harrison
The Power of Love
Lorraine Pilgrim Gallery
Tests + Jungian Type Descriptions
http://similarminds.com/jung/infp.html
Tests ~ http://similarminds.com/personality_tests.html
Medium Test (84 questions)
Short Test (50 questions)
Word Choice Test (30 pairs)
Big 45 Test (225 questions)
Word Test (70 words)*
Freudian Inventory Test (36 questions)
Eysenck Personality Test (46 questions)
Career Inventory Test (58 questions)
Advanced Jung (144 questions)*
Number Pattern Test (15 questions)
Short Test (30 questions)
Advanced Test (126 questions)
Word Test (60 words)*
Big 30 Test (155 questions)
Short Test (50 questions)
Advanced Test (131 questions)
Jung (48 questions)*
Visual Pattern Test (15 questions)
Vocabulary Test (<10 minutes)*
Word Association Test
Inkblot Test
•
Your Unconscious Mind Is Most Driven by Peace.
•
You have a deeply-rooted desire to make peace in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with loved
ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to be able to influence the world in a
positive way. You have a deep respect for humankind.
•
You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it, and you inspire others to
feel the same way. Your innate drive toward peace guides you in daily life towards decisions that are
respectful toward yourself and others. Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you
will understand who you really are...
http://uk.tickle.com/test/inkblot.html