AuxiliarY DamagE

Author

• Aiyi ChengFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-22-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Digital Media

First Advisor

Adela Goldbard

Second Advisor

Rachel Vera Steinberg

Third Advisor

Leah Beeferman

Abstract

AuxiliarY DamagE asks what happens to pain when it is moved outside the body and given material form. Pain is not treated here as an image to be represented, but as something processed through repetition, pressure, exposure, and care. It is handled. Washed. Arranged. Pulled out. Swallowed back in.

Hair became the material that allowed this question to stay unstable. While attached to the body, it is intimate and ordinary. Once detached, it becomes residue, evidence, discomfort, value, and loss. In the studio, I washed collected hair, untangled it, threaded it through metal, placed it near flame, held it in my mouth, removed it, returned it, and let it gather again. Each action became a way of listening to what the material resisted.

Through performance video, sculpture, sound, and installation, the thesis builds a system where the body is both worker and site. Aluminum holds the space as a cold reflective perimeter. Sound stays close to breath, saliva, friction, and cutting. The gestures remain quiet and procedural, refusing spectacle.

Auxiliary damage names the small injury that allows a larger structure to remain intact. The absorbed loss. The swallowed language. The body regulating itself so the form can continue standing. This thesis stays with that condition: pain externalized, processed, and made to remain.

Recommended Citation

Cheng, Aiyi, "AuxiliarY DamagE" (2026). Masters Theses. 1534.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1534

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.