Constructing a Place of Belonging

How is displacement reflected in artistic practices? How do displaced artists address this issue when they turn to subjects of land, landscape and geography? The theories presented in this essay contextualize practices that turn to subjects of land and displacement approaching them in the light of embodied cognition. By investigating emergent and alternative patterns of agency, I trace a current epistemological shift which re-situates a theory of cognition within lived experience. This shift is important for considering the phenomenon of re-building a “sense of place” after the rupture of displacement - as a process of identity and knowledge formation. My research views painting as a practice of agency in examining the experience of concrete subjects rather than seeking formal, transcendental conditions of subjectivity. Employing a theory of embodied cognition I approach the matter of land as place and abstracted landscape painting as an artistic practice and an attempt to actively re-build my own sense of belonging.