The Enclosure of Consciousness

The usual procedure in undertaking an analysis of representation in art is to consider it as defined, before all else, by its polar relationship with abstraction. This polarity is made possible in its common or uncritical form, however, only by a particular metaphysics. The simple opposition of these two depends on the presence of a world which is manifest in a modality considered external to the system of representation, and on the notion of a mode of perception which is independent of systems of reference altogether. The alternative view is to set the concept'world' more philosophically within the systems in which it is expressed. Particular systems may then be discussed according to the way that concept figures in them, from abstract orders of signification, where it is not a determinant of meaning, to pre-critical lifesituation usages which assume reference to a transcendent reality. Artistic representation does not correspond to either of these, and therefore understanding it correctly requires that we examine this

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