Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Painting and Printmaking
First Advisor
Noah Simblist
Second Advisor
Hilary Wilder
Third Advisor
Cara Benedetto
Fourth Advisor
Alexander Zohore
Abstract
This thesis explores compulsory domesticity and the impulse to overextend oneself, both pressures often associated with the construct of femininity. Through diving into my personal history, which includes growing up in a three-generational home of women, I explore mimesis as it functions in both the replication of identity and in terms of pictorial representation; specifically I address its relationship to gender, manifestation within the body, and the search for subjectivity through the process of making and thinking. In various forms of material explorations, I play with ideas of malleability, mimicry and “embedded” behaviors that are passed down and embodied in those socialized as women in a heteronormative structure. I translate this act of overextension as a play on words as well as through form, creating connections by hinging, stretching, folding and linking, to address the psychological as well as physical. I chose the title Double Jointed, meaning one's joints can move past the normal range of motion, as it implies that you have two joints where you should have one. With this notion, I address the embodiment of these cultural patterns as physical, and aim to frame these perceived weaknesses as strengths, within my practice and personhood.
Rights
© Grace Bromley
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2024
Included in
Art and Design Commons, Art Practice Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons