Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Photography
First Advisor
Brian Ulrich
Second Advisor
Anne West
Third Advisor
Shura Baryshnikov
Abstract
The Image Falls Apart is a phenomenological account of my collision with Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross (ca. 1435). In an ever-expanding landscape of visual stimuli, how do we make sense of images that are an encounter with the sacred? Of what use to a modern viewer is an altarpiece of the late medieval period that, in its miraculous rendering of each of its human figures, reflects the impending iconophobia of the Protestant Reformation? And what does falling have to do with it? With careful attention to the assembly of bodies in space, this multidisciplinary project, informed by art-historical inquiry and postmodern dance methodology, uses video, text, and photography to investigate how images act on and implicate the viewer, emphasizing the many affective dimensions of aesthetic experience. Through the somatic surface of the image, this work engages the multivalent interpretative potential of The Descent not only as a form of visual exegesis but also as a container for embodied research and representational intervention.
Recommended Citation
Curran, Alexa N., "The Image Falls Apart" (2026). Masters Theses. 1689.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1689
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Aesthetics Commons, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religion Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Medieval History Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Painting Commons, Photography Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Renaissance Studies Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons, Visual Studies Commons