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1981
Illuminating the Non-Representable
  • ISSN: 2052-0204
  • E-ISSN: 2052-0212

Abstract

Illustration is often casually assumed to be a representational practice, where ‘something out there’ is represented, i.e. shown again, in visual form. The prefix ‘re-’ in ‘representation’ suggests that something exists prior to its pictorial rendering. With reference to a project I worked on as an illustrator with a group of older feminists who had come together to record their memories of their involvement in the Women’s Liberation Movement, I use this article to propose an alternative possibility for illustration. Rather than considering illustration as representational, I submit that illustration in the process of its creation can produce the reality it refers to. It can therefore be understood as a form of performative knowledge production. In this piece, I draw on my project with the feminist group and interweave this with Jean-Luc Nancy’s work on community, Rosalind Krauss’s reflections on indexicality and Jacques Derrida’s article on the nature of declarations.

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2024-11-19
2026-04-17

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References

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/content/journals/10.1386/jill_00084_1
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Illustration as an announcement of a world
Journal of Illustration 11, 45 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/jill_00084_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jill_00084_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jill_00084_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): community; European philosophy; facilitation; performativity; representation; visual arts

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