"Intertextuality" In Artistic Creation And "the Practice Of Intermediality" As A Creative Method For Painting

Coined by Bulgarian-French scholar Julia Kristeva,“intertextuality” is both a theory and method that revealed the inter-referencing trait of texts and the mosaic-like construction of utterances.Over the course of its development,the term has evolved in multiple approaches of different disciplines and is therefore no longer confined to literary discussions.However,even if intertextuality has already extended to the field of the non-literary arts and has since become a creative method,its room for applicational research is obvious due to a lack of focus in such domains.The influence of structuralist linguistics and semiotics on the connotation of "text" began in the 1960 s has made text,by now,become everything interpretable.And this understanding has also brought about the definition of "art as text",which,in the broadest sense,offers intertextuality a more concrete foundation for the discussions into the non-literary arts.As one of the directions or subcategories of “intertextuality”,as well as a creative method advocating the intersection and identification of different media and the cross-category of art," the practice of intermediality " occurs not only in classical art with similar "predecessors"(examples),its more cases have also been seen in modern and contemporary art practices.In other words," the practice of intermediality " is an existed creative method with enlighteningly pragmatic significance for artists(especially for painters);in contrast to a plethora of theoretical debates,its application as a creative method in the non-literary art is yet to be discussed,either.Started from the author's interest in both the latest developments of intertextuality,and the contemporary art practices observed from the perspective of methodology,plus having noticed the myth that the interdisciplinary concept still is regarded as a mere literary theory,this research aims to clarify the relationship between intertextuality and non-literary artistic creation,and hence combine and apply both of them with the author's identity as a painter.Taking "the practice ofintermediality as a creative method of painting " as the object of study,this dissertation makes comprehensive use of theoretical analysis,case study,observation of practice,and artists interviews to analyze intertextuality and artistic creation from the angle of an artist.By selecting and comparing the cases of American artist Bill Viola and emerging German artist Peter Piek,this research exemplifies the artistic creation closely linked to "the practice of intermediality" and analyzes its typical methods as borrowing and citation,alongside the manner how multiple experiences and readings are integrated into artists' works.This dissertation also takes the author's own practice of painting as a sample of observation to explore the validity of artist's self-construction how "the practice of intermediality as a creative method of painting" can bring.The results show that,in the process of artistic creation,"intertextuality" can also occur whether intentionally or unintentionally,and whether consciously or unconsciously.These occurrences are not mutually exclusive because the artist,as the subject of artistic creation,is able to master them all.In addition,the objective of "the practice of intermediality as a creative method of painting " is to facilitate painters with more options of both methods and ideas for practice,and to go beyond the naturalism one.Through such a new approach,painters will find more source materials to be utilized,and will also be inspired by such effective means to achieve self-construction.Studying on specific creative methods from a new perspective of "the practice of intermediality" instead of adopting the excessively-focused perspectives of “appropriation art” and “cultural appropriation”,this research is a contribution to the now-still-uncertain concept of "intertextuality",adding the author's findings to the field of the pragmatic,non-literary art(painting)creation.A leading construction as well,this research also provides a reference for the practice of painting creation,and a portal of possible,subsequent discussions.