using art as a mediator for intimacy

What is it about?

An art-based research study that explored whether art and art-making could be considered mediators for intimacy within personal expression. Certain qualities of intimacy were identified within art and art-making: an urge to move closer, embracing small details, layering, safety, transformation, borders and empty spaces, restrictions by limiting media and tension. Art as a mediator was found to provide an intermediate space and a transcendental realm and to serve as a vehicle of expression that could bridge between the physical and the imagined, integrate inner qualities, support differentiation, encourage witnessing and reconcile ambiguity and conflict.

Featured Image

Photo by russn_fckr on Unsplash

Photo by russn_fckr on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Despite the common perception that intimacy is an interpersonal phenomenon, the study demonstrated how art-making provides the space and the prerequisites for intimacy to emerge, within an intra-personal search of intimacy. It demonstrates an art-based research the focuses on intimacy as an intra-personal phenomenon.