Type
Text
Type
Thesis
Advisor
Dinkins, Stephanie | Belisle, Brooke | Paradis, Jason.
Date
2016-12-01
Keywords
Art history
Department
Department of Studio Art
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76836
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
What drives not merely the individual but our society as a whole? How do we regard our own experiences, and, as an extension, how does that affect how we relate to the experiences of another? How do our individual motivations affect our societal motivations and vice versa? These core questions serve as the catalyst for my work. By developing artwork with this line of inquiry in mind, which includes research into contemporary as well as historic social criticisms, I come closer to finding answers to the questions that fuel my artistic practice. Throughout the process, I mine the many ways our human community operates to resolve how it functions and dysfunctions and how its members connect or disconnect. For my written thesis, I will explore the above-mentioned ideas through the work I have produced during my studies at Stony Brook University, including but not limited to my solo shows at the Lawrence Alloway Gallery as well as my piece for the MFA thesis exhibition at the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery. I will refer to texts that have guided me personally and academically towards an understanding of the experience of the self and its relationality; a broad range of source materials from the critical writings of Nicolas Bourriaud and Herbert Marcuse to the more contemporary writings of Claudia Rankine and Scott McLeod. Through discussion of specific works, I will delve into themes common throughout: issues of freedom, alienation and disenfranchisement of “the other†. I look at the figurative elements common to my work that represent contrasting relationships i.e. | humanoid or animal- like creatures that engage with their environment and those that do not; shelters that protect and those that damage their inhabitants; and screens or windows that serve to reveal or conceal that which is within. As is the goal for most of my work, my thesis shall provide more insight into the simplicities and complexities of our human nature. | 29 pages
Recommended Citation
El-Maghrabi, Myda, "Each Body is a Strange Beach" (2016). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2712.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2712