Sites and Sinthomes: Fantasmatic Spaces of Child Art in Art Education

Abstract

Abstract Brent Wilson (2005) has described three primary sites of visual culture experiences for children and their art teachers. The first is made up of visual culture experiences outside and beyond the classroom. The second is the conventional or transformed classroom. And the third is a space where connections are made between formal schooling and children’s so-called self-initiated visual culture. In this essay, I reassess the three sites through psychoanalytic theories to more fully comprehend and critique contemporary concepts of child art in education, within an approach that is situated deeply within the realm of the unconscious. Through theories of the Real, I interpret the study of child art and the proclamation of “the death of child art” as an example of one of art education’s sinthomes. I conclude with some remarks on the possibility of a fourth site that honors and extends Wilson’s ideas on pedagogy.

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