Shame Project

I am a graduate student at California State University Northridge. I have begun an art project that wants to address the idea of shame and how it manifests itself within our society, stays hidden behind roles we play, idenities we adopt and addictions we manifest.If distress is the affect of suffering, shame is the affect of indignity, transgression and of alienation. Though terror speaks to life and death and distress makes of the world a vale of tears, yet shame strikes deepest into the heart of man…shame is felt as inner torment, a sickness of the soul…the humiliated one feels himself naked, defeated, alienated, lacking in dignity and worth.”Silvan Tomkins (In Nathanson, 1992)