Art for art's sake or art for society's sake? How can the contemporary artist make a place for the unconscious and the mythical without falling in the traps of iconographic revivalism? An imaginal approach to arts practice suggests a shift from ego to soul: the artist as an agent for the archetypal dimension of the psyche. As 'art for soul's sake', it is at once individual and collective, devoid of narcissism and yet uncompromising. The works of butoh dancer Atsushi Takenouchi and visual artist Louise Kenward provide the tapestry on which these ideas are presented.