Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Painting
First Advisor
Yasi Alipour
Second Advisor
Dana Degiulio
Third Advisor
Jackie Gendel
Abstract
Balances within the human body and auto mechanical structures share a staggering amount in common. The two are intrinsically linked through their shared reliance on intricate internal and external systems to be in balance in order to function. Our biological makeup consists of electrical, fluid and chemical systems which mirror the machines we have chosen to forge. I am plagued by the human need to see ourselves mirrored in metal form, or perhaps we are just unable to create too far outside ourselves, resulting in the leeching of human structures into all technology we construct.
The Old Testament of the bible states,“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Essentially, the Old Testament suggested that humans are created in God's image in order to rule over the material world. I harbor suspicion towards human intention in the creation of the car, if we have been created in gods image, have we constructed the car under similar constructs for purposes of simulating divinity within ourselves? Perceived dominance over a controlled subject, in order to see our form repeated in something durable and controlled.
Despite these alleged aspirations we have produced machines and by extension, cars, full of as much maintenance and leakage as human form. Capable of cardiac failure and gastrotomic shortages. Taking this logic into account one has to wonder if then by extension “god”, the diagrammatic grandfather to the car, is yet another tier of dependent oily edema. Playing servant, just as we must, to systematic balances, in order to forgo annihilation.
Recommended Citation
Maria, Banshee, "The Porous Auto Body" (2026). Masters Theses. 1607.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1607
Creative Commons License
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