Date of Award

Spring 5-30-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Textiles

First Advisor

Anna Gitelson-Kahn

Second Advisor

Ursula Wagner

Third Advisor

Meg Callahan

Abstract

Awe-struck is an exploration at the intersection of embodied and situated cognition, sight, sense-making and nature with an additional layer of artistic interpretation and emotional response. Adapting elements of Terrapin Bright Green’s biophilic design principles, this work pushes past the well researched benefits of incorporating nature into a designed space, to uncover an individual’s personal connection to an environment. The connection is multi-faceted—layered with observations of space, color and location, filtered through a lense of physical, philosophical and psychological reactions and then translated into an individual personal history. With a specific focus on wild spaces, where humans have designed and affected nature in an attempt to keep it ‘natural,’ this thesis follows a trail through memories and experiential recollections of sights, sounds, movements and trajectories. This journey results in a collection of handwoven textiles that evoke the awe of far off landscapes while maintaining a structural grounding influenced by geometry and architectural spaces. Through the monumentality of hanging panels, the embodied energy of handwoven cloth, and repeated elements and grids that naturally occur in both the weaving process, and in nature itself, the resulting fabrics are a synthesis of these ideas.

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