DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/ZWNY-9C04
Defense Date
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Kinetic Imaging
First Advisor
Gregory Volk
Second Advisor
Lisa Freiman
Third Advisor
Semi Ryu
Fourth Advisor
Robert Paris
Abstract
Through discursive essays and poetic narrative, Antithetical Commentaries on X, Y and the Disruption of Being explores the tenuous relationship between modes of measurement and the struggle for human relevance in the post-contemporary digital age. In the introductory essay, “Not the Feather, but the Bird”, I give an overview of the inherent problems of object-oriented ontology, and how it relates to aesthetics and social issues of our times. In the Developmental Overview, I detail how I developed my installation approach and techniques, particularly with regard to the three-way dynamic of the artist:work:viewer relationship and how it can encourage a ‘transgression’ that leads to the possibility of a transformative awareness of being. Subsequently, I present a series of ‘antithetical’ commentaries that neither explain nor expand the installation, rather, they create a non-binary duality that, through an entirely non-linear anti-narrative, work to erode the overlay of personal, civic and collective grids present in the memory space/time referenced in the video, TAG. Finally, in “Grid: Towards a Transgressive Humanism.” I propose a path by which installation art might serve to create transgressive opportunities for viewers, rather than the transcendence sought through religious rituals, which often reinforce stigmas, fears and authoritarian social dynamics, or worse, the reductive loop, of many contemporary approaches to art which proclaim
their detachment in wordy displays, essentially leading to a form of aesthetic nihilism. This Transgressive Humanism is not presented as a dogma, but rather a revitalization of the work as a vessel of possibilities, an agent of creative growth for the artist and the viewer.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-13-2016
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Latin American History Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Philosophy of Language Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, Photography Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons