DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/9NHC-VN70
Defense Date
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Painting and Printmaking
First Advisor
Gregory Volk
Second Advisor
Holly Morrison
Third Advisor
Cara Benedetto
Abstract
My work focuses on the construction and validation of images assembled from fragments of found photographs, generating new narratives that hover between “reality” and fiction. Archive and Fiction: Construction of the past and the self is the result of two years of artwork exploring my family archives and my relationship to my family through them. I understand the family as a place of identity in continuous change, serving as a container of history and memory. Conceiving of my family albums as material allows me to approach my family history as a visitor. Mediated memory and constructed memory intertwine in the family album, a linear format that also inadvertently reveals gaps, both temporal and contextual. By understanding how photography’s authority constructs personal and family identity, I seek to undermine this authority, using photography’s “realness” against itself to create alternative narratives of within which I can belong.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-11-2017