Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2019

Author's School

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Author Department/Program

Graduate School of Art

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art

Degree Type

Thesis

Abstract

Abstract

The use of monuments as future-relics to validate and preserve the identity of Afro-Caribbean people within the Anglophone Caribbean is the premise for the conceptual and physical development of my studio practice. My dissertation is about this practice and how the art work that I make, function in the way they are intended. The work monumentalizes Black identity in an effort to mirror the significance and resilience of the Black self within the Caribbean; a space that was created by Europeans to enrich their respective Empires. I put forward the use of established canonical art practices as a methodology to map one culture unto the other as a way of presenting the Black narrative to the Black viewer.

This investigation aims to reexamine considerations of how the Caribbean is defined by looking at how it was established and how it has transitioned from its colonial beginnings to its post-colonial standing. The reinterpretation of the Caribbean puts into context the Anglophone grouping of countries on which I am concentrated, with closer reference to my home country, Jamaica. Utilizing my own knowledge and experience, as well as, conducting research into the scholastic work of various historians, artists and records of the sociopolitical sphere, I present ways in which cultures are affected both positively and negatively. The case I put forward here, gives reason to the significance of Afro-Caribbean communities to reconfigure their own identity.

Language

English (en)

Program Director

Patricia Olynyk

Program Director's Department

Graduate School of Art

Thesis Advisor

Heather Bennett

Studio/Primary Advisor

Patricia Olynyk

Studio/Primary Advisor

Michael Byron

Studio/Primary Advisor

Jamie Adams

Committee Member

Richard Krueger

Committee Member

Richard Krueger

Artist's Statement

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/mwrs-0s86

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