Publication Date

5-2015

Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)

3-3-2015

Type of Culminating Activity

Thesis

Degree Title

Master of Fine Arts, Visual Arts

Department

Art

Supervisory Committee Chair

James Budde, M.F.A.

Supervisory Committee Member

Dan Scott, M.F.A.

Supervisory Committee Member

Janice L. Neri, Ph.D.

Abstract

In this thesis, I will provide a brief history of consumer culture and the mechanisms by which it operates: such as the aestheticization of the factory, including the illusions that remove evidence of process from production, a propagated fear of the body, and a cultural rejection of the unfamiliar, the difficult, or the old. Connecting them to ideas in both Art and consumerism, I will poke and prod at the mythologies of progress, dematerialization, and the Orphic complex. In exploring theories of doubt and skepticism, I will suggest an alternative perspective on the body, one that considers the mouth as the entrance to the self (rather than the eyes) and personal experience as a compass for subjective direction (in the form of expression). Finally, I will explore complexity (created by depth, layers and juxtaposition), decoration, and gradient as concepts that are of both visual and conceptual concern.

Included in

Fine Arts Commons

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