DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/9K00-9F65
Defense Date
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Fine Arts - Jewelry and metalworking
First Advisor
Susan Ganch
Abstract
This writing is an experiment in combining the two most important frameworks through which I understand the world, the storytelling traditions of my people, the Mvskoke(Creek), and the rational tradition that began with European Enlightenment era thinking. By weaving allegorical narrative (much of it personal) into theoretical speculation, I draw connections between recollection, truth, and the act of making. This examination of the gaps and connections between seemingly disparate worldviews, runs in parallel to the purpose of my work, wherein I construct fictive symbiotic and parasitic relationships between jewelry and wearer. This work takes advantage of the wearer as environment, resource, and propagator. By abstracting from real-world biological structures, this work conflates genetic and memetic dissemination. I am creating systems and models of systems using individual jewelry pieces for specific wearers that reflect the structure of arrangements that are repeated throughout nature. Ultimately I am raising questions about the hard lines that we draw between things in nature—including ourselves—and our place in biological, cultural, and personal systems.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
May 2014