STATEMENT ABOUT RUNNING FIGURE
DoraDallwitz2000

In 1992 I started work on a series of sculptures related to the NullarborNymph Hoax. I projected myself into the story in an attempt to understand it more fully. I am convinced that there is more to this story than meets the eye and have written a 10,000 word dissertation analysing the narrative from, amongst other things, a psychoanalytic point of view, as a fantasy. This sculpture aims to look beneath the skin of the original idea and portrayal by the media. As a fantasy the story opens itself up to the scrutiny of various psychananlytic systems. According to traditional models, the Nullarbor Nymph, as a product of the imagination, becomes symbolic, a manifestation of the unconscious - either personal or collective. This idea led to my proposition that the Nullarbor Nymph is the Australian manifestation of the Wild Woman Archetype as articulated in the Pinkola Estes book Women Who Run with the Wolves which was a world best seller when it was written in 1992. This sculpture gives physical form to this psychological/archetypal thrust. The postmodern notion, which questions whether there is any - final place of knowing - any - real Self - is also examined in my analysis. Perhaps identity and wholeness remain at the level of fantasy. Perhaps ones quest for knowledge, the drive of the soul towards freedom and enlightenment is eternal - the process of - becoming - all important. The running figure also embodies these notions. This postmodern material was of particular interest to me in the light of my earlier 1970s work and philosophy.