Date of Award
Spring 5-30-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Sculpture
First Advisor
Heather Rowe
Second Advisor
Amber Hawk Swanson
Third Advisor
Benjamin Jurgensen
Abstract
I create situations that hold onto spaces or things. That psychic energy can be transferred to a viewer. I’m curious about this transference and The Aesthetics of Disengagement and the empathetic nature of making work.
I often engage the viewer through overwhelm (such as: texturally, amount of objects, length of performance, mark making…) to create anxiety/tension around a body or around how a body relates to space. To create this overwhelm, I use ritual, repetitive labor that is between obsessive and meditative. In this boundary, I wonder about whether art is healing or can be. I’m interested in creating spaces for the viewer that are nest, but also partially tenuous or, sometimes, trap-like— comfortable and uncomfortable. This spatial and bodily tension parallels the Gothic genre’s claustrophobic spaces and Elaine Scarry. Finally, I’m also curious, in relation to the extreme time scales I use, about the line between art and life. !
Recommended Citation
Betts, Julia, "Dermis" (2017). Masters Theses. 149.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/149
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