Art Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2745
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Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item 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.Item Methods of Making(2007-05-15) Lock, Benjamin Christopher; Ruppert, John; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I am drawn to tools, their applications, and the way things work. The action and process of manipulating and transforming material to create formal visual statements is vital to my sculpture. I utilize and respond to material and process, allowing for the work to develop through its creation. Relationships of form and space interest me. Not only do I find beauty in material, it also exists in the tension and the power of a space within or between forms. These interactions in my work help formulate the visual language through which the metaphor is present. I hope to capture and express a sensibility to which one can relate. This thesis will further discuss the manner in which I make sculpture. It will be a compliment to the artwork and an attempt to put to words the conceptual basis for the forms I create and the spaces they compose.Item PushPullPow(2007-05-10) White, Adam; Richardson, W. C.; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I am interested in the concept of the narrative and how an idea can be taken through a series of events from one location to another location altogether. This focus on narrative was sparked through an attraction to the format of the comic book. A comic book requires two visual elements to convey its meaning: imagery and text. I am seeking to find an unnatural balance between the two elements and how the alteration of one and the absence of the other can affect the original story. This alteration is representative of how information of any kind is presented by one party and then received, in its original or altered form, by a secondary party.
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