Nyctophobia
Erika Rundle
Figure 3: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024)
Introduction
Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark where evil waits in the shadows of our imagination (Edensor 2015:422). This body of work emanates fear, intensified by the dark that overwhelms and obscuring the truth that threads our nerves to hysteria and numb our emotions to silence (Green 1994:230). Monsters embody abject fears of everything grotesque and dangerous in the human imagination as well as deeper ideas of moral transgressions, internal struggles, and societal fears that drive terror into human hearts (Bailey 2008:8). I create a space in the gallery for critters to hide above, crawl on and go deep under the surface of the mind as the monster inhibits memory and disable the control of thoughts and actions, where deep seated traumas imprint behaviour through projected instincts (Bailey 2008:9).
Figure 4: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Figure 5: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Background
II research Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) who invented the psychoanalytic phenomenon of the Rorschach Inkblot Test in 1921, that reveal the human psyche and unfold behavioural issues within individuals who experienced trauma (Salvatore 2013:1). I use printing to create symmetrical critters by using the inkblot as a metaphor to access the psyche and translate, interpret and signify the monster within a deep emotional space (Nadali 2021:116). These critters hover, hide, crawl, wonder, wait, fall upwards and lurk deep down on three different surfaces (Salvatore 2013:1).
Psychoanalysis is synonymous to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and carry deep understandings of human behaviour that function in the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind (Cavanna 2023:1). Monsters break psychological limitations that mirror human behaviour, embody our weakness and creates chaos in an organised mind especially in people who are recovering from posttraumatic stress (Bailey 2008:9).
Figure 6: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Personal Experience
Fear engulfed me as a young child and the emotional impact of a traumatic event hindered my capacity to capture the experience in words or symbols. Bessel Van der Kolk (1994:8) contends that, when confronted with a traumatic situation, the individual experiences “speechless terror”, as the traumatic event darkens over time as the monster repeatedly returns in the unconscious mind, triggering the traumatic event through images, smells, sounds and even touch (Van der Kolk 1994:8). Fear recently triggered my memories of past traumas that left an uncanny feeling and a silenced monster to surface. This monstrosity manifests in this artwork, expressing and reflecting the behavioural aspects of fear as a wondering, crawling, flying, upward falling, deep downward lurking critter. Monsters are ambiguous creatures that crack the borders of one ’ s reality and turn our external world inside out, immersing one in the midst of fear, wonder and terror (Straub 2012:145).
Figure 7: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Influential Artists
In figure 1, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) created Ink-stain (1850) that form a contrast between active and passive mutation of an inkblot as the hidden life beneath the image reveals itself, drawn from the unconscious hand creating reversible images that reveal half vision half realities (Gomboni 2002:58). Hugo used Klecksography, a method of dripping blots on a surface that creates symmetrical images when folded, setting the imagination free as the image appeared accidentally in an unplanned, unconscious way (Gomboni 2002:56). The German word ‘Klecks’ describes a stain or blot that signifies a blemish, mark or disfigurement that absorbs an imprint on a clean surface representing a thing and its opposite (James: 2017:299). This artwork communicates dark images and figures that strike an internal psychological reaction revealing deep hidden emotions and behaviours as the fear of monsters dictate the fear of selfhood (Wilson 2010:496).
Figure 8: Victor Hugo, Ink-stain (1850).
Franco-American Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a prolific artist whose work was rooted in childhood trauma, as she kept diaries detailing her thoughts and anxieties (Bourgeois 2008:2,1,140).
Her deep trauma caused demons to haunt her through years of psychoanalysis where she only ever found healing through her art (Hirsch 2018:44-45). Bourgeois figure of the spider inspired me to create critters that crawl on the surface of the earth as seen in Bourgeois figure 2, Spider IV (1996) (Hirsch 2018:44).
Figure 9: Louise Bourgeois, Spider IV (1996).
Research Methodology
Julia Kristiva (1941) is a Bulgarian-French psychoanalyst who speaks of the abject. The abject is something that disturbs the self by provoking an uncanny feeling of nauseating disgust, repulsion and fear. Kristiva highlights the concept of monster as uncanny critters that are foreign ‘others’ as she says: “I experience abjection only if an ‘other’ has plonked itself down in place of, and on behalf of, what will be ‘ me ’ (Kristeva 1982:132). I research binary concepts that flip between good and evil, monsters and wise creatures, light and dark to find ways of expressing projected hidden treasures imprinted onto the memories of my own monster (Putri 2016:82). I research Klecksography and use this Modernist technique to create monsters using ink drops that reveal hidden treasures and stories of critters (James 2017:299). I research Plato’s allegory of the cave and the shadow images that instructed the prisoner’s reality and describe this concept within the images that memory creates within trauma patients (Wright 1906:131).
Figure 10: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Formal Considerations
I consider the medium and idea of artist book making that presents a conceptual dependency on activation, which creates an angle for storytelling within the chosen theme (Milne 2019:10). I create a platform that constantly looks above, within and below the surface of the psycho that highlight hidden truths, gifts, wisdom, and knowledge through the application of light that symbolises the spirit and glorifies what is good springing from the centre it creates as seen in Figure 13:Nyctophobia (2024) (Cirlot 2001:187-188). The use of the Rorschach Inkblot technique allows the audience and open space to interpret as they are free to respond to the stimuli of the monster that provokes deep feelings and shape meaning in what is seen by the unconscious (Salvatore 2013:1). I use the power of the inkblot within plastic creatures, symbolic in a semiotic context that awakens the imagination to mirror what is absent or present discovering the ability to access and explore images of one ’ s own psyche whether real or not (Salvatore 2013:2).
13: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Figure
The Artwork
The exhibition encompasses three artworks that connect the monster by the process of Klecksography and the inkblot within the conscious within the Hive (Figure 10 and 11) subconscious seen in the critter installation (Figure 4 and 6) and unconscious state of mind in the underwater plastic installation (Figure 14 and 15) (Nadali 2021:116). The Rorschach test creates a metaphor for fear within binary creatures that hide in the darkness (Figure 13) (Nadali 2021:116). I observe a manifestation of uncanny critters that emerge from the darkness of a hive, using light to transfigure the terror of imprinted memory as the onlooker engages and discovers hidden treasures and stories the monster leaves behind (Malchiodi 2020:15). I use acrylic paint and glue that symbolise embodiment and thick bleach and bees wax that withdraw and subtract language and hidden gifts as a metaphor for the inability to recall and voice what really happened in the darkness and the healing that took place within my pages (Nadali 2021:116). The bees wax leaves transparent areas within the image that are magnified through the exposure of light, revealing other creatures onto the surface as seen in Fig. 4, Erika Rundle, Ink blot experiment (2024) below.
Conclusion
Monsters become the vehicle which examines our fears and mirror hidden memories in our bodies (Wilson 2010:495). In this age of social change, the hybrid post-human condition and the integration of technology as a way of life, lurking critters bulge into fearful monsters as society lose their emotional integrity towards one another (Erle 2020:2). This installation encompasses three artworks and embody the concept of the Rorschach Inkblot and the images of uncanny critters that reveal themselves as transfigured test subjects that expose the monster in the darkness presenting fear as the main subject matter in this body of work.
Figure 16: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
Curriculum Vitae
Erika Rundle
Born 1975
EDUCATION
BVA in Visual Art (UNISA 2018 to 2024)
WORK
Willowmoore High School (Present)
GROUP EXIBITIONS
UNISA 3rd year exhibition (November 2019)
Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Ekurhuleni 2012
30/30 Individuals, Springs Art Gallery 2011
Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Ekurhuleni 2011
MEDIA COVERAGE
2012 Beeld Newspaper, Interview by Retha Fick
CONTACT
rundleerikakata@gmail.com
+1qa 27 0824004848
Figure 17: Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024).
List of Illustrations
Fig 1. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Wax and ink on paper. 20 x 20cm.
Fig 2. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric, batting, wire. 12 x 10cm.
Fig 3. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric critters. Gallery installation.
Fig 4. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric critters, Gallery installation.
Fig 5 Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024) Fabric, batting, wire, wood 30cm
Fig 6. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric critters, Gallery installation.
Fig 7 Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024) Fabric, acrylic paint, wire batting 15cm x 25cm
Fig 8. Victor Hugo, Ink-stain (1850). Touched up on Folded Paper, pen and brown ink. 20.2 x 14.2 cm. https://flashbak.com /victor-hugos- blotto-drawings-in-coal-dust-and-blood-1848-1866-367246/ (Accessed 4 August 2024)
Fig 9. Louise Bourgeois, Spider IV (1996). Photo by Peter Bellam. https://blog.fabrics-store.com /2019/06/20/louise-bourgeois-fear- trauma-and-catharsis/ (Accessed 31 July 2024).
Fig 10 Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024) Hive: Paper, glue, wax, thread, ink, acrylic 250cm x 100cm
Fig 11. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Detail of Hive.
Fig 12 Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024) Ink drawing Variety of circles 50cm to 14 cm in diameters
Fig 13. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Ink drawing. Variety of circles 50cm to 14 cm in diameters.
Fig 14 Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024) Plastic, acrylic, cable ties, metal, fabric 3m x 3m instalation
Fig 15. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Detail of plastic installation. l
Fig 16. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric, wire, batting, thread, acrylic. 10cm x 12cm.
Fig 17. Erika Rundle, Nyctophobia (2024). Fabric, wire, batting, acrylic. 60cm x 10 cm.
Bibliography
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