Framing consciousness in art

Abstract

'Framing Consciousness in Art' examines how the conscious mind enacts and processes the frame that both surrounds the work of art yet is also shown as an element inside its space. These ‘frames-in-frames’ may be seen in works by Vermeer, Teniers, Degas, Rodin, and Cartier-Bresson, Lee Bontecou, Raphael Lozano-Hemmer, Rashid Rana, Gillian Wearing and many others. The book also deals with framing in a variety of cultural contexts: Indian, Chinese and African, going beyond Euro-American formalist and aesthetic concerns that dominate critical theories of the frame. Various ways of framing philosophical, psychological and art historical topics using framing metaphors are also examined, with the aim of unearthing the underlying cognitive and multisensory aspects of framing.