Re-theorising and Envisioning Text as Image

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Abstract

This study examines texts and images along with the poetic connection between the two, by explicating how text gives life to image and how image subsequently informs and inspires text. Furthermore, it also sets out to examine how art practice creates knowledge and induces philosophy. The study is inspired by Paul Gauguin’s theory on the inclusion of shadow in painting. He occupies a prominent place within the history of painting and particularly in the history of Fauvism and Symbolism. Shadow (a metaphysical subject in Igbo mythology called “Onyinyo”) before Gauguin put forward his theory and even after, had remained and still remains an appendage to figure and objects in the painting. Is it possible to separate a shadow from its subject material that casts it for the purpose of painting? This examines the possibilities of the artist in the academia as a scholar that contextualises both the images and text as one body of transmitting knowledge as a scholar in the university community. The research accesses the bond between image and text, which means that the practice of painting and knowledge are inseparable. Painting is a visual narrative that could be read through careful contemplation, and painting could lead to a critical argument for the topicality of the visual arts.