DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/5KNT-H702
Defense Date
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Fine Arts - Ceramics
First Advisor
Andréa Connell
Abstract
Exploring how the material environment affects human knowledge of the world is an ongoing investigation in my studio. With this tactile exploration I am also looking to discover how histories and cultures overlap constantly and in close proximity within my daily experience. By collaging natural fragments and cultural debris in my installations, I seek to exaggerate this overlap and create the dizzying feeling of moving through many places at once. Cultural and historical overlapping also occurs in the phenomena of erratic boulders, which refers to the depositing of boulders, rocks, sediments and other materials that receding glaciers leave behind. This phenomenon has the effect of spinning archeology and geology on their heads as large fragments of earth and cultural debris can be carried by glacier for hundreds of miles. This process exposes an intelligible yet chaotic cultural and geological sampling, and in this paper I will explore how this natural phenomenon parallels aspects of my MFA thesis installation.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
May 2014