Date of Award

Spring 5-17-2017

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

My statement is that women in poverty are now, as in the past, in circumstances of exclusion within the feminist struggle. This exclusion is mirrored in various cultural movements and milieus. I see my performance work as a vehicle to express the emotions of women in class struggle. This has taken center stage with the return of the political (Trump, etc.). My work gives emotion and lived experience primacy to assert the unique subjectivity of working-class and poor women. This pays homage to the women who were relegated to the backdrop of modernist art.

I will compare my lived experience with academic art movements that inform my art making and performance work. It is through the legacy of artist such as Carolee Schneemann and Ana Mendieta that personal narrative has become a tool in my work. My lived experience from underground punk culture embraces shock and the grotesque. My study of feminist and body art movements has brought validity to my performances and my statements concerning lower class women living in poverty. I believe in hope and with the healing properties of emotion our stereotypes will be dismantled.

Language

English (en)

Program Director

Patricia Olynyk

Program Director's Department

Graduate School of Art

Thesis Advisor

Monika Weiss

Committee Member

Buzz Spector

Committee Member

Buzz Spector

Committee Member

Tim Portlock

Artist's Statement

My practice uses mixed media painting and sculpture as a cohesive whole in immersive space. I make statements about class, identity and feminine archetypes. The installations through the lens of performance become paintings. My subjectivity portrays homage to the women who were slaves to the backdrop of modernist art and women in working-class enviroments. I belive emotion is radical and the only way to show the humilation of poverty is to embrace the "grotesque,

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7MK6BBK

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