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IDENTITY                                                       


The third theme building my study on adolescence is ‘identity’. During the early stages of my research on liminality in Semester 1, I looked into the Malawi tribes and their rituals where adolescence temporarily take their leave from society in order to discover themselves. [1] Even centuries ago, where the Malawi tribes people have been dated back, [2] adolescence appear to go through a tremendous process of discovering their identity, enforcing its liminality.

Throughout my project, I used my signature to signpost my work which made me consider how this can relate to identity- especially during adolescence. Responses to my previous artwork- questioning the contemporary validity of the signatures- resonated strongly with me on an emotional level, which inspired me to research into how signatures affect my art. In the book Constructions of the Gendered Self across the Media [3], an article that stood out to me was Wieland Schwanebeck’s study of signatures, giving some professional insight into the role of signatures in and outside of art: 

- “Documents become legally binding on the basis of signatures” “measured against... the firm belief that they mark things” “the authenticity - of signatures appears quite fragile” (pg. 88)
- signatures are a “cultural obsession” (pg. 94)
- “the signature becomes a part of the depicted scenery” (pg. 105)
- “establish a communication between the artist and the audience” (pg. 106)

Within this body of writing, Schwanebeck outlines the origins of signatures within documents as a form of authentication. However, he also states how this legal basis is built on the “belief that they mark things” and through “cultural obsession”; this is significant as is shows signatures may have been sculpted as a form of legislation, but it carries a sociological foundation where people believed signatures carried meaning and identity. Further on in his writing, the author relates this to art and explains how these signatures can become a part of the artwork itself to carry a message to the audiences. Therefore, although signatures may appear backward or traditional, they can also act as a tool to reinforce the message of the artwork and allow the artist to directly communicate with the audience. 

In my case, I am researching adolescence and more specifically their struggle with identity. With much consideration, signatures could be used as a metaphor to show how the subject of the painting is discovering their identity. Furthermore, it could be used as a way of informing audiences, although they feel lost now, their identity will be found eventually.


 

[A5 acrylic paint and embroidery thread on canvas] In this artwork, I created a mixed media experimentation piece, playing work colour and materials to visualise the affect a signature has on artwork in practice. The 3D element created through the use of embroidery helps emphasise the signature and holds it more value and dominance in the artwork, ironic to how Schwanebeck described it as fragile. Despite its strong appearance in the artwork, this fragility is still quite strong, coming across confusing in some ways. However, this irony works well into the theme of my project, this strength and fragility documenting the psyche of adolescent minds as they discover their identity.

The embroidery is strong in bringing strength to the line art it is creating, being a signature or an abstract shape. Moving forward, I now understand signing art requires thought and purpose, and embroidery can be an effective tool in bringing focus to shapes within art.

 

Back in Studio 1,  I created this oil pastel artwork (the first image that is not bordered) as a way to connect humans with nature and reflect our environmental footprint. Finding this old image among my archives, I used the composition and altered the colour and medium to resemble identity and lost feelings instead. This painting was made with blues and whites in acrylic paint on an A3 sized canvas. I used shell white paint sounding the figure in order to separate the positive and negative space by having it shimmer in the light. However, I still kept the foreground and background relatively connected through the colour and smokey streaks of paint radiating from the entity’s vessel. I used embroidery to create the signature. This use of multimedia brings attention to the signature, through the colour green layered on the consistent blues, and the textural differences too- showing a clear rebellion in deliberately signing my work. The signature also helps audiences understand the artwork by drawing their attention to a signature in such an ambiguous and lost piece of art. I then edited the image to inverse the colours to compare how the image changes with a warmer pallet. Although both images seem ambiguous and lost in their own right, the blue tones appear more sad and soul-searching and the orange and cyan appears more chaotic and driven.



Continuing from my delve into signatures, I used the ideas of line art and embroidery to use wires and expand them outside the artwork. This skeletal structure explores the layers of identity and face value. I used coloured pencil to create the initial drawing on A4 paper and presented it in the mid-semester exhibition. I signed the artwork, however, found the wires and abstract shapes more powerful.

 

To continue from my previous work, I created the same image in a different media to compare the effects of how it presents identity in adolescents. The second image is a life drawing. In these artworks, I used digital software on Procreate and two different colour pallets: one vivid and one using brown tones. It will be interesting to experiment with the effects colour has on the adolescent expression. The use of signatures in artwork appears more expressive with identity in close-up portraiture. However, I intend to investigate bodies and the incomplete nature of humans and therefore full body portraiture but line art will be interesting to continue on in my project to explore the complexity of confusion and identity. Furthermore, the body language of this artwork is something also worth pursuing further.

Bibliography


[1] Munthali, Alister C, and Eliya M Zulu. 2024. “The Timing and Role of Initiation Rites in Preparing Young People for Adolescence and Responsible Sexual and Reproductive Behaviour in Malawi.” African Journal of Reproductive Health 11 (3): 150. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2367147/.

[2] Encyclopaedia Africana. 2025. “MALAWI .” Encyclopaedia Africana. June 20, 2025. https://encyclopaediaafricana.com/malawi/.

[3] Schwanebeck, Wieland . 2015. “The Painter’s Hand and Hitchcock’s Silhouette: A Study of Signatures.” In Constructions of the Gendered Self across the Media, edited by Ulrike Kohn et aL., 88–106. Leipziger Universitätsverlag.

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