Definiëring door negatie - Verdwijningskunst en gezien worden in De Consequenties van Niña Weijers

Abstract

The whole conception of what an artist is, has radically changed since the Romantic era. Before, an artist wasn’t identified as an autonomous genius who let his inner world speak trough his artwork. Because of Romanticism, his duty has become to break borders in order to make original and authentic work. Philosopher Maarten Doorman claims that this Romantic order is still prevailing; postmodernism would only be an extension of this paradigm.

Working within this framework, Nathalie Heinich theorizes her sociological régime de singularité that states that a modern artist can only be successful if he manages to stand out. This forms a paradox that is creating great difficulties for artists, as being abnormal turns out to be the normal. Another problem related to the artist identity as reported by Heinich, is his coping with success. Gaining success makes the artist feel like an imposter, because his self-perception can’t keep up with the rapidly exalting image the world holds of him.

Poststructuralist Jacques Lacan states that our identity is relational, so it is highly dependent on this mirror image we get back from the world. This confirmation of others – regardless if it’s adequate – is indispensable to feel like we exist. Our whole life we strive to unify our scattered being and strangely enough, it is this striving that gives meaning to our lives, not the solution, because that is not attainable according to Lacan.

Turning to the novel De consequenties (2014) by Niña Weijers, we see the above problems dramatized in the protagonist, an artist that makes conceptual and mostly performance art. This young woman struggles with her lack of identity and tries to (symbolically) eliminate herself in her artwork. By doing this, she’s able to deal with the demands of the paradigm she lives in.

The outline of her character turns out to fit the conception of a romantic artist perfectly. Besides that, negating herself is ironically enough her ticket to become a person. With her artwork she shows herself to the world by not being there. Because she is seen, she feels like she is loved. Not only does this construction make her stand out in an unique way in the regime de singularité, it makes others reflect an image back to her that helps her build an identity. At the same time, this gaze of others makes it possible to show her authentic, inherent personality, to express the genius that was hidden in her subconscious. Conversely, the designation of others makes her feel uncomfortable, as if she plays a role. The main character wants to disappear, because she suffers from the imposter phenomenon, her self-perception doesn’t meet up the image of her as a real artist.

Her goals – defining and erasing herself at the same time – will never be reached. Partly because of their opposite nature, but also because she realizes à la Lacan, that she cannot disembark the system she is in. She will always want to free herself, even though she knows she is stuck in the process of trying.