Date of Award

Spring 5-15-2015

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

Almost anything goes in this time of contemporary artistic production as long as an artist can ‘back’ their ideas and the position they operate from. This expanding territory of production and engagement is an exciting potential for working artists, providing freedom to self-determine ones modus operandi within an expanding support system to engage the world with. While this is an exciting growth it is also potentially dangerous. The un-named and historically ambiguous position that Art1 operates from has created a rootless position to the production of culture. This rootlessness or, universal position has historically established itself as the gatekeeper and continues to unconsciously perpetuate a hierarchical aesthetic ordering of culture. In this cycle of non-acknowledgment of itself, it continues to estrange forms of creative labor -and therefor communities of people- and maintain segregated cultural spaces rendering it unable to effectively relate to historically othered forms of American art and cultural production.

This has created a need to clarify the origins and values of Art as we know it. This is an open attempt to do some clarifying, in writing and in the work of my practice. My practice is inspired by the places I physically inhabit and my relationship with the: people, history, intangible connections and material aspects that create the conditions as they are through the filter of my White-Female-Midwestern-American experience. My practice takes up the everydayness of art and culture and its connective and transformative capacity for mutually building self awareness and relationships with others in a place; while also using Art to disrupt established unconscious values in the institution and in the personal.

Language

English (en)

Program Director

Patricia Olynyk

Program Director's Department

Graduate School of Art

Committee Member

Denise Ward-Brown

Committee Member

Denise Ward-Brown

Committee Member

Lyndon Barrois Jr.

Committee Member

Jesse Vogler

Committee Member

Lisa Harper-Chang

Artist's Statement

I create within a spectrum of the ephemeral to the material that responds to the constellation of place I am part of. I participate through acts of disruption and/or mending in real and ideological spaces of the city and established Art institutions through the lense of historical reconciliation.

Dayna Kriz is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and received her BFA from Iowa State University. She is a graduate of Community Arts Training Institute through the Regional Arts Commission and co-ran Rebuild Foundation in Saint Louis.

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K73J3B56

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