Art Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2745

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Start date: 2000End date: 2009

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 28
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    Modus Operandi
    (2009) Flick, Jeremy Joseph; Gavin, Dawn; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    "Modus Operandi" is a presentation of the resulting images and artifacts premised on the artistic investigation of the found patterns of tinted security envelopes. The works included in the exhibition engage a theoretical dialogue, representing an awareness of the language of abstract painting and offer some possibilities of its future recalling that "painting is more than an act of remembering the conditions of daily experience; it is an exercise in looking; a subject in itself" (Grabner 25). Based upon serial strategies and procedures, the individual works of art included in the exhibition, along with this and any other supporting documentation, are sub-divisions, which collectively offer a broader understanding that through investigating the whole of visual culture, even the most banal or trivial, and the most marginalized patterns and decorative motifs can become symbolically, even poetically, vested with meaning.
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    Fear and Doubt
    (2009) Wead, Matthew; Pinder, Jefferson; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    My work is about the shared human experience. The intent of the work is to address broader issues by using a mixture of the observational with the personal. The underlying concept of the work is that individual identity is not seperate from the larger human collective. Finding a commonality between our individual experiences is the only way to truly understand each other.
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    Videopainting:a Dialogue
    (2009) Rojo Acebes, Juan Andres; Morse, Brandon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    My video installations refer both to the pictorial quality of cinema and to the artist's role as a voyeur. The videos depict simple processes or actions, such as eating, cleaning, or applying make-up. These actions are deeply interiorized and they recreate "true" moments of intimacy by capturing the natural way in which the body communicates. The emphasis is on the actions per se, the importance of the time spent performing them, and the emotional associations that they carry. The contrast between the qualities of the new media and my recent work's content and form, has transformed my previous self-indulgent activity into a meditated exercise of nostalgia. Formally my body of work bridges the distance between a Spanish Baroque painterly aesthetics and the apparently opposed qualities of the digital medium.
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    Art and Everyday
    (2008-08-21) Conaway, Sarada DeviDasi; Gavin, Dawn; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Responding to the 1983 essay The Real Experiment, written by the recently deceased artist Allan Kaprow, I discuss the "lifelike art" tradition and the lifelike art I have created while in graduate school. This thesis also compares and contrasts two western avant-garde art traditions. Various technological and cultural changes are proposed as reasons for lifelike art's recent popularity. I conclude that lifelike art is becoming vernacular, while retaining quality.
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    Untitled, Not Defined
    (2008-05-06) Benefiel, Christian Litty; Ruppert, John; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This body of work is comprised of three untitled works made from mixed media and sail fabric. The work touches on issues of recent reliance on technology, the re-establishment of place. As a secondary function, the works explore the idea of personal space, as well as the willingness of the gallery patron to participate in art rather than observe. Through interactive media, durable items and the open invitation to touch, the pieces are meant to create an active exchange of aesthetic principles between the viewer and artist. In this dialogue, traditional roles are interchangeable, and the work is incomplete without active participation and consideration of both parties. The work is built locally, utilizing materials not exclusive to, but inherent in the culture of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. The materials are used in a manner that stays true to locale and purpose, while pushing the boundaries in which material, intention, and method coexist.
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    Unveiling the Inner Self
    (2008-05-15) Chishty, Mahwish Kamran; Ruppert, John; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Contradiction between the visible (zahir) and the veiled (baatin) creates this dialog of what we see and what the reality holds within; "They find as what they seek..." I have found my secret hide-outs, the Sanctuaries as my divine peace and every time I am in contact with them, I reveal myself onto myself. My early life experiences of not settling down in one place and moving from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and later to America have left me with this sense of homelessness. In order to find connections between my roots, and myself, I started building my own comfort spaces within the spaces that were available at that time. By allowing my viewers to interact with the sculptural installations,I invite them to explore the concept of self-actualization and self-realization. For the past two years I have been investigating Kufic calligraphic fonts in my artwork. In the tradition of Sufism, the whirling and spinning helps one to know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inward from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.
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    Dedicated switch-hitting, risking safety, embodied transcendence and other apparent contradictions.
    (2008-05-14) Mitchell, Meghan; Morse, Brandon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    My work reflects a long-standing attraction to the material and experiential imperfections that emerge through a collision of physical and cultural reality. My use of biological materials such as feathers in tandem with rigid systems exaggerates this contrast. It suggests the divide between a linguistic, conceptual space and an inherently organic and unpredictable physical space. While experiencing the work, the viewer is enveloped in a responsive environment of sound and that reveals the constantly shifting nature of their personal, physical experience of the environment. While embarking on what seems at first glance a practice that fits in with modernist ideals of truth and the progress of human knowledge, I do not seek to reinforce these ideals. Rather, I use humor to subvert modernist hierarchies of aesthetic value. The work borrows from a diverse range of sources such as Greek mythology, contemporary advertising, camp, cinema, art history, and representations of technological progress.
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    Underneath The Music
    (2008-05-21) ROBINSON, ELLINGTON RUDI; Pinder, Jefferson; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I see my work as an expression of a young man growing up in a household of music, books, and highly influential people. During the crack era that becomes prevalent under the tenure of President Reagan. The influences of the past will be the guides to surviving in a time when many friends parish as victims from the abundance of violence. The influences and tragedies are translated into motifs that are metaphors combined to create forms of communication. The hardwood floors, record jackets, tape, and railroad tracks provide a catalyst. These motifs are combined and isolated to tell an intense story that is layered with the history of the Civil Rights Movement, hip hop culture, drugs and music. The work is a conduit to release years of pain dealing with loss and oppression. It is also a vehicle to celebrate the philosophy that joy and pain are synonymous with life.
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    Memento Mori
    (2008-05-13) Makranczy, Aniko; Craig, Patrick; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Memento mori, a Latin phrase usually translated as "Remember that you are mortal," or "Remember you will die" describes the basis of the body of artwork that is my focus. Obituaries taken from newspapers, are the materials I use to explore poetic notions about death and loss. Obituaries reveal attitudes which influence my work as well as points of view which I sought to emphasize and later shift away from. My work leaves room for the viewer to sift through multiple levels of meaning while not imposing any singular interpretation.
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    Landscape as Symbol
    (2007-05-17) Sykes, Brian Harrison; Pinder, Jefferson; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I see my work as intentionally mistaken metaphors about the rural/suburban American landscape. Infecting burlap sacks of tobacco leaves with vinyl siding within the privileged frame of the gallery, I create a catalyst for multivalent readings and multiple meanings. Wrapping straw bales with Wal-Mart brand plastic wrap creates a new object-a simulated product generated from the dialectical material interaction of the suburban/agricultural and the agricultural/suburban. These aforementioned materials act as visual metaphors that could easily be mistaken for metallic forms or plastic rope. This visual slippage allows for a pseudo-narrative to wind its way through the work. The hope is that the works that I create act as reflective symbols to an audience, who I believe at their core are symbol-mongers, while at the same time presenting an everydayness. This everydayness would be like the smell of Sunday dinner in the living room.