Date of Award

Spring 2016

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

Art has the potency of mediation: bridging human differences, questioning voids in historical trajectories, negotiating spaces of relevance, and most importantly, being signifiers that embody the absent. I speak in a borrowed language, a multilingual visual tongue, inspired by a culmination of Western and African Art modes of practices to create charged platforms for multicultural communication.

My art presents visual portals that allow for intercultural and interracial mingling as issues of colorism, present-day colonialism, gender inequality and the politics of dress are foregrounded for collective deliberation. The essence of the work is often activated and brought to its full potential by public viewership, participation and collaboration.

This document can be thought of as the voice of a lioness (myself) ushering in untainted accounts of a proverbial story of a hunt that defines global worth. The validated accounts have long favored the hunter over the lioness. However, A Borrowed Language: Outsider Artist, Insider Art presents new assertions for the unseen to be seen and the unheard to be heard.

Language

English (en)

Program Director

Patricia Olynyk

Program Director's Department

Graduate School of Art

Committee Member

Jessica Baran

Committee Member

Jessica Baran

Committee Member

Heather Bennett

Committee Member

Denise Ward-Brown

Committee Member

Kedron Thomas

Artist's Statement

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z60MBX

Download

Share

COinS