Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2020

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

I view my creative process as jumping head first into material, laboriously wringing it dry, and wetting it again until it transforms into its own. I use felt, silicone, family heirlooms, and embroidery, which contend between each other materially and connote feminine and fantastical landscapes and characters. I drench the felt in pastel colors and excrete silicone filled paint through cocoons of lace, to call forth associations of beauty and the grotesque. I am very interested in the tension held between two and three dimensional space, and how teetering on this line allows me to question reality, expectations of language, and tactility. Inspired by the pattern Toile de Jouy, my work uses the symbolic ideas of this Rococo French pattern to create art that investigates childhood, the grotesque, and domesticated nature. It is my assertion that through the use of metaphorical, fantastical landscapes and paintings, my work can allow viewers to transcend their expectations on the language of beauty and the power of the sculpture.

Language

English (en)

Program Director

Patricia Olynyk

Program Director's Department

Graduate School of Art

Thesis Advisor

Meghan Kirkwood

Studio/Primary Advisor

Arnold Nadler

Studio/Primary Advisor

Richard Krueger

Committee Member

Julia Walker

Committee Member

Julia Walker

Artist's Statement

Artist Statement

Deeply rooted in the material process, I utilize a range of processes and approaches to create soft sculptures and installations. The work contends with the challenge of seeking identity through the lens of adolescence and the decorative which encompasses a state of perpetual self-awareness. I explore a range of domestic materials, including family heirlooms, felt, embroidery and wallpaper, by taking them apart and rearranging them to perform new narratives that question overlooked colonial influence on art and design. My intention is to disorient the viewer with the complex relations of the materials and forms in front of them and this turn lay bare the manner in which western culture teaches us to domesticate ourselves and thus be numb to the real experience of being in the world. In exploring these bodily confrontations, the work engages in an ongoing dialogue about coveting objects and questioning how we oppress the natural world to be a domesticated reiteration of western comforts and desires.

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