‘Representation and the Scopic Regime of (Post)Cartesianism’

Moloney, Donal (2021) ‘Representation and the Scopic Regime of (Post)Cartesianism’. In: Palgrave Handbook of Image Studies. Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN 9783030718299

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Abstract

This innovative book chapter focuses on the writings of Bryson (1983 and 1990), Didi-Huberman (2005) and Baudrillard (1988) to construct a novel theoretical lens that analyses the enduring influence of Cartesian perspectivalism upon contemporary Trompe L’oeil painters Lucy McKenzie and Helene Appel.
Firstly, I consider why Cartesian perspectivalism has sustained itself and what led to its expansion, as well as it’s disruption, using several key case studies, namely Francisco de Zurbaran and Johannes Vermeer.
Through an investigation of shifting approaches to depictions of space, light, the viewer’s body, and digital imagery through Trompe L’oeil painting I argue that specific examples of representational painting have continually disrupted Cartesian perspectivalism. This, I contend, is in order to bring the viewer’s body into a more active rather than passive engagement with the way meaning unfolds in the depiction of space in the painting themselves. This investigation serves as a foundation for my novel hypothesis that McKenzie and Appel’s Trompe L’oeil paintings are a highly pressurised version of Cartesian perspectivalism that then stresses how much of what we see and experience today is mediated by technology.
This chapter also challenges dominant perspectives on scopic regimes being non-participatory such as Metz (1982) and Jay (1988) and presents the novel and theoretically underpinned participatory scopic regime that I locate in the Trompe L’oeil paintings of McKenzie and Appel. Both in terms of its findings and its methodological approach this chapter is an original addition to scholarship on scopic regimes as well as McKenzie and Appel’s Trompe L’oeil paintings through its reconsideration of the lasting legacies of Cartesian perspecivalism on contemporary painting.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Scopic Regime, Painting,Trompe L’oeil, Francisco de Zurbaran, Johannes Vermeer. Lucy McKenzie and Helene Appel.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts
Depositing User:	Donal Moloney
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2020 11:01
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2022 09:47
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3139

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