DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/GYTX-PE26
Defense Date
2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Painting and Printmaking
First Advisor
Assistant Professor Cara Benedetto
Second Advisor
Associate Professor Gregory Volk
Third Advisor
Associate Professor Holly Morrison
Fourth Advisor
Associate Professor Dr. Gaynell Sherrod
Abstract
Here is an exploration of the intergenerational Southern Black American Body, a complex collection of persevering souls of the past, present, and faith-driven future. Through the sensorial physical encounters of my body, sometimes recalled through the physicality of another, I locate the labor to belong, the complexity of submission, sensual awakening, displacement, absence, and the expansive spiritual force of the collective body.
Using documentary additions of archived family photos and journal entries, I expand and abstract the occurrence of my presence through non-linear time, connecting the personal to the complex communal. These documents are the slippery prophecies of my being, our being, that simultaneously cause, effect, and become the present-day poetic text. This work complicates desires to essentialize and understand black presence—embracing the process of becoming, seeping, seeking.
Rights
© Wesley Chavis
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-16-2017