Date of Award
Spring 5-18-2018
Degree Name
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Abstract
In my work I generate forms that occupy the space between our false conceptions of nature and culture. I subvert binaries–both between nature and culture and between women and men–through the physical conflation of microscopic and macroscopic spaces. Nature itself is a cultural concept; the notion that we are separate from nature at all is a fallacy. The body of work discussed uses ideas from Environmental Sociology and my definition of intersectional Ecofeminism to visualize the intersection of these cultural binaries within physical space. The pieces included utilize light responsive technology as a means of mediating our experiences with the environment with the intent of creating a more sustainable future. The work created is a visualization and manifestation of the space where these dichotomies: nature/culture, women/men, and micro/macro understandings of space coalesce and overlap.
Mentor/Primary Advisor
Michael Byron
Recommended Citation
Brown, Zoie, "Overlapping Entities: Visualizing the Space Between Nature and Culture" (2018). Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers. 54.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bfa/54
Artist's Statement
The biomorphic organisms I create struggle to make themselves known; they grow and burst and hide in the unnoticed spaces we inhabit, teeming between the edges of what is considered human. Similar to a sponge, lichen, swarm, or school, the pieces are an aggregation of smaller individuals. Using sculpture, installation, and photography, I generate forms that occupy the space between our false conceptions of nature and culture.
My work references and conflates the body–both human and plant. The resulting pieces become foreign in their familiarity, revealing the peculiar moments within the familiar spaces and bodies we inhabit. The viewer is left to discern what these beings are and how they came to be. I am interested in frustrating or complicating their experience by upending their expectations of a given environment or form and making them hyperaware of their body in relation to the work.
I create photographs in addition to my sculptural work to further investigate the types of fiction I can construct with these two mediums. Photography separates these created spaces from our own, turning them into a document from some other time or place, whereas the sculptures occupy our surroundings, living in the places we think we understand.
The intent of the work is to create an appreciation and awareness of how people go about their lives and interact with the world. From that, hopefully a more widespread realization will permeate to larger, more substantial cultural shift in the spaces people create, and the way we define what is natural or human.