Date of Award
Spring 6-3-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Ceramics
First Advisor
Katy Schimert
Second Advisor
Lesley Baker
Third Advisor
Yoko Inoue
Abstract
I reach into the earth, pull out mud-encrusted objects, and recombine them to define new meanings. With every object transposed, the past breaks down; new potentials form. “New Commandments” recombines historical symbolism through an intuitive building, destroying, and merging to reimagine or re-establish meaning.
The work critiques rites of passage, masculinity, and stereotypes by deconstructing how histories, ideologies, and preconceptions form.
As a queer person raised in-between Judaism and Christianity, social preconceptions and religious expectations festered my formation. Our choice is taken away at this moment of conception. To take back autonomy, I reimagine historical, and religious symbolism and transmute them into new stories through chaotic mixing of painting, glazing, 3d printing, and hand-building. The process of scanning an object, transcribing it into a set of digital data, and then reconstructing it through digital fabrication and the ceramic process creates a divergent artifact while still referencing the original.
Clay collaborates and transcribes narratives through marks of the hand, the melting of glass, and the heat of the firing. Clay memorializes the entropic cadence of distress, struggle, and transformation during its formation. This transcription references the process by which the body, the soul, and identity are molded through inside and outside interventions. These methods act as lenses of reinterpretation, a process of building new power structures from old rubble.
Recommended Citation
Sussman, Jacob, "New Commandments" (2023). Masters Theses. 1084.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1084
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Ceramic Arts Commons, Epistemology Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons, Poetry Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Sculpture Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, Theory and Philosophy Commons
Comments
View exhibition online: Jacob Sussman, New Commandments