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Social identity is the personhood formed as a result of socialisation and acculturation processes (Barker, 2007, p. 222). Subjects draw upon accessible resources to express their social identity, such as social ascription or social groups (Tagg & Seargeant, 2016, p. 343). It is through these social markers that subjects learn the expectations and impressions that others have of them (Barker, 2007, p. 220). Andy Warhol blurred the lines between visual artist and celebrity. The artist affiliated himself with the high-class social groups of ‘ascribed’ celebrity and ‘achieved’ celebrity, heightening his own social status and increasing the commercial value of his commodified pop art pieces (Kerrigan et al., 2011, pp. 1512–1513).

Fractured identity occurs as a result of the condition of subjectivity which renders individuals vulnerable to shifting internal and external forces. Therefore, a single concrete identity nor complete autonomy can be maintained (Bennett & Royle, 2016, p. 151). A subject is fragmented into multiple identities which may be inconsistent with one another (Hall et al. 1996, p. 598). Jason Wing’s installation In Between Two Worlds (2012) explores the artist’s bicultural identity. Indigenous Australian symbolism represents the Biripi people and Chinese symbolism refers to his Cantonese background (Adelaide Eastern Courier, 29 September 2010, p. 33). The artist converges these identities by stating that he is “100% Chinese, 100% Aboriginal, 100% Australian” all at once (Wing cited in Ang, 2017, p. 345).

Creative identity is the way a person identifies with their artistic discipline, and how their subjectivity informs their creative practice. Just as choices in representation of self in the form of clothes and branding reflects identity, the curation of ideas and representation in works reflect the identity of the artist. Creative identity is informed by and expresses the ‘self-other-object’ triad, which encompasses the “interaction between self…, multiple others…, and notions of creativity informed by societal discourses” (Glaveanu & Tanggaard, 2014, p. 12). Creative Identity (2017) by Jason Rodriguez demonstrates that external forces impact creative output. The clothing suggests specific socio-cultural groups which shape creative identity, signified by the colourful erasure of facial features.

Authenticity is the degree to which an artist is genuine about their personal truths, the truth of others, and cultural truths (Moore, 2002, p. 209). The genuineness of an artist is determined by individual judgement through three lenses: authenticity of expression, authenticity of experience, and authenticity of execution (Moore, 2002, pp. 214–220). Authenticity is often achieved through the self-examination and the admittance of flaws in identity (Mansfield 2000, p. 18–20). Tracey Emin’s confessional works tell of the artist’s personal truths of failed relationships, alcoholism and abortion in shocking detail, so much so that art critic Stallabrass (cited in Smith, 2017) claimed that she “collaps[ed]...the boundaries between artist and art”.

Creative influence is the conscious or unconscious inspiration taken from another artist and their work. It is embracing the knowledge that every idea is inherently connected to a greater pre-existing discourse (Taylor, 2007, p. 4). My architectural paintings give consideration to the degeneration of the intricate craftsmanship of historical buildings and their fleeting narratives that can be brought to the fore through their representation. In doing this, I knowingly affiliate myself with other artists: the conceptual practice of Dina Brodsky is concerned with New York buildings, their past inhabitants, the memories held within their walls, deterioration and decomposition.

Dina Brodsky, Gone from the One More Shelter series, 2016

Sensory knowledge is coming to understand the world through information learned by the senses, exclusively and synaesthetically. This may be olfactory, auditory, visual, tactile or gustatory. Kesinger (1995, p. 245 cited in Howes, 2005, p. 28) proposed that “A truly knowledgeable person is one whose whole body knows.” Margaret Moore quintessentially expresses this idea in the interactive installation Still Sounds (2012) which combined the tacticity of hanging cloth, visually projected family photographs, sounds of Griogal Cridhe and the musty smell of The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London (Lauwrens, 2012, p. 2). This synaesthetic experience heightens understanding of the artist’s evocation of family history.

Freudian psychoanalysis holds that overdetermination is an aspect of subjectivity in which a subject’s recurring actions are an emergence of unconscious phenomena (Mansfield, 2000, p. 29). It dismisses the insignificance of seemingly quotidian behaviour, holding that it instead indicates the repression of subliminal negative energies and conflicts that are resurfacing. An overdetermination of Van Gogh’s work involves associating the frequent portrayal of himself with familial replacement, through which he reaffirms his identity in light of his stillborn brother that was born exactly a year prior to himself and was of the same name. Psychoanalysts connect this to Van Gogh’s unconscious myth that he was a replacement child (Blum, 2010, p. 1316).