Date of Award
Spring 5-2017
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis is an archive composed of text and image that catalogs the perpetual distance between the photograph and its subject. In my practice the fluidity of representation is examined through the frame of the photographic archive, while the notion of what constitutes a photographic archive is redefined. While seeking to describe the mutability of encounters with landscapes and past memories the materiality of the photograph is emphasized, the image and its substrate destabilized, and both experience and photograph are fleeting. In many cases water acts as the alchemical substance for transformation, leading the photographs closer to a state of dematerialized materiality. My longing lies in the desire to fully represent a subject through the photographic image, and awareness that the photograph leads not towards an understanding of the subject, but a photographic fiction.
Language
English (en)
Program Director
Patricia Olynyk
Program Director's Department
Graduate School of Art
Thesis Advisor
Richard Krueger
Committee Member
Zlatko Cosic
Committee Member
Zlatko Cosic
Committee Member
Heather Bennett
Committee Member
Richard Krueger
Recommended Citation
Varner, Kari, "The Record in Question" (2017). Graduate School of Art Theses. ETD 95. https://doi.org/10.7936/K7B27SR2.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/samfox_art_etds/95
Included in
Art and Design Commons, Art Practice Commons, Fine Arts Commons
Artist's Statement
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7B27SR2