Date of Award
Spring 5-30-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Painting
First Advisor
Craig Taylor
Abstract
Through re-imagining the radical emotional, psychological, political, poetic, and story telling power of food, I use the theater of life to set the stage of the table. Conjuring discussion with Chronos and Kairos, the meal is placed within the liminal; where all bodies are simultaneously present and absent. The painting is as much about life as they are about death. Investigating contemporary life and myth making, I explore the mapping of culture through the objects we consume. I view the tablescape as a place of narrative portraiture. Sometimes the table acts as a shrine, other times a commons or a stage. Intrinsic to this body of work are Jane Bennet’s Vibrant Matter: Political Ecology of Things , Manny Farber and Helen Molesworth Termite Art, and lastly Joseph Campbell’s works within cross cultural anthropology and mythology. Maximalist, feminist, and unapologetically colorful and boisterous A Slice of Life: Theater of the Dinner Table for it all.
Recommended Citation
Pincus-Whitney, Kate, "Slice of life : theater of the dinner table" (2020). Masters Theses. 490.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/490
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.