Identifier

etd-06032011-135301

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Art

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The six sculptural works that comprise my thesis exhibition emerged from a prolonged series of investigations into the intricately interconnected phenomenon of embodied experience in the world as we know it. These works explore the connections between mysteries in our inner and outer worlds, taking as inescapable fact the notion that our bodily vessels, in all their complexity and subtlety, are the vehicles through which we encounter the world. As such, this work posits embodiment as both frame and anchor for all knowledge and experience. These sculptures, made from ceramic materials and mixed media such as sugar, salt, string, and found objects, engage perennial questions through process, form, and language. From questions about the innate human longing to understand love or the human heart’s ability to experience levity even in the wake of incredible suffering, to questions about what a strand of hair or a beam of light are made of at their most infinitesimal essences, this work’s structure and content suggest such inner and outer mysteries are ultimately connected by an epic, invisible web that I call what-is-ness. My work seeks to investigate and to articulate that web. This document extends my material inquiry into the realm of language, using both conventional prose and the mode of poetry. Knots (or, riddles) embedded in the sculptural works are teased out through empirical, philosophical, and figurative reflection. My hope is that this text will prove a fitting companion to the sculptural works themselves, and that both will leave the reader/viewer with more resonant questions than definitive answers.

Date

2011

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Shaw, Andy

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.955

Download

Included in

Fine Arts Commons

Share

COinS