The Fold with The Decline of the Empire: Three Essays and a Letter

Abstract

This thesis implements the principles of Gilles Deleuze’s theory modeled in The Fold [1993] , a framework for presenting multiple perspectives simultaneously. The Deleuzian fold is established as a lens through which to view artists’ approaches to their process of making, with complex linkages referencing aspects of their surroundings, their generation and previous generations. The investigation focuses on the fold concept’s analysis of the production of subjectivity—the process of shifting perspective recursively. The methodology builds on theories and critical literature to: define the fold; give visual context by presenting its role in Cubism; establish the fold’s integral role to the way our brain works—the process that concurrently collects, edits, and stores information as comparisons—that is the fabric of the contemporary arena; present examples of its applications in contemporary artists’ processes and the significance of folding and unfolding within my work.

The thesis is structured in two sections: ‘The Fold’ and ‘Artists Background and Imagery’. ‘The Fold’ establishes theory surrounding principles of the Deleuzian fold, the way it coincides with the Cubist movement, and its application in contemporary artists’ processes. ‘Artist’s Background and Imagery’ is structured to present ‘The Fold’ research’s relevance to my background and application in my practice. The multiple perspectives I have lived as son to immigrants—mother a refugee from Baghdad to Israel, father rooted ten generations in Jerusalem—and first in my extended family to attend college, constitutes the borderless, imbricated placement of thought that founds my imagery and institutes my making process.

The act of folding is the act of evolving possibilities. The subject of the fold suggests—as the aspiration of a work of art—that witnessing a work of art is witnessing the profound act of life.