Experiences in Translation, or a Short Story of a Girl Told in Pictures
- Bibliographic Description: Stanislavas Mostauskis, „Patirtis vertimuose, arba Trumpa mergaitės istorija, papasakota piešiniais“ | Aivaras Stepukonis (sud.), Apie vertimus: turinio metamorfozė daiktuose ir kūnuose, @eitis (lt), 2025, t. 2056, nr. 280–321, ISSN 2424-421X.
- Peer Reviewers: Liucija Černiuvienė, Vaida Almonaitytė Navickienė, Valdas Jaskūnas.
- Institutional Affiliation: Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas.
Summary. The presentation is dedicated to the analysis of the iconographic motifs of a set of drawings, and considers their ability to express the contents of the creator’s experience, as well as the translation of the contents into the interpretative text proposed by the researcher. The broad concept of translation was used, bringing together communicative, nominative, expressive and other aspects of the selected medium. The presentation is based on the research data obtained during the supervision of a master’s thesis in the Art Therapy study program by my colleague Aiva Janonienė. The proposed interpretation is a rethinking of the data collected during the thesis research, a refining and in-depth re-articulation, with the focus on the experience of one of the participants of the research, presented in the form of a series of drawings and accompanying comments. The aim of the presentation is therefore to present a likely interpretation of the teenager’s experiences as revealed in the iconography of her drawings and expressed in her comments during art therapy sessions. The focal point was the experiences associated with the creator’s perspective and the iconographic forms with which the creator identified. In the drawings made during the earlier art therapy sessions, the participant depicted herself in the space of a controlling gaze, inspiring negative experiences and saw herself through the eyes of such a gaze. Gradually, the power of the oppressive gaze diminished and was replaced by a neutral or supportive gaze indicating positive shifts in her self-perception. In the subsequent drawings, the painful experience of interpersonal relations and the need to distance herself from the social scene inspired by this experience turned into a cautious attempt to take the first steps towards it. The gaze reflecting the inner state was replaced by a gaze seeking contact with the viewer, albeit an emphatically cautious one.
Keywords: art therapy, adolescence, disclosure of personal experience, iconographic analysis, change of gaze.