DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/14HW-FP49

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

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