Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ant Tribe, Yan Zhao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Ant Tribe" describes the post-80s generation university graduates who live together in poor conditions without Social security in communities around China's major metropolises. They dream of a better life in big cities but struggle with low-paying jobs. These struggling "elites" have become the fourth weak Social group, after peasants, migrant workers and unemployed people. The reason why these college graduates are compared to ants is that they are like ants: clever, hardworking, politically weak and living in groups.

The real world is always different from the ideal world of the "Ant Tribe" in China. They often lose their purposes in …

Inspired Living, Gongke Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inspired Living is a juxtaposition of old and new, contemplating the shift of values in contemporary China.

Patriotism used to be one of the key values in the Chinese people's minds, but those values have changed dramatically. Fewer people are thinking about or talking about patriotism, like sacrificing for the country or serving the people. In reality, getting rich and spending money to purchase all kinds of products, either absolute necessities or unnecessary luxuries, has become the key value of many Chinese people.

The images used in this project are all found and come from various sources, including books and …

Spiral Installation, Mauricio Alfredo Linares-Aguilar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spiral is a site-specific gallery installation. Simplicity and subtleness are the goals for this installation. It shapes a spiral from above, and is meant to be experienced by walking through it. It has four different elements: one white cotton scrim, 71 feet long by 9 feet high, one cotton scrim 15 feet long by 9 feet high, a direct wall print, and outside natural air. The piece is made of materials such as cotton fabric, casein, bleach and Arkansas yellow oxide clay.

The intent of Spiral Installation is to convey the idea of the flowing process of life and death …

Pixel; Ghost, John Christopher Kelley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pixel; Ghost is an exhibition of video and sound installations that explore the creation, change, and degradation of memory, transitional states of mind, and family. The pieces are structured around cinematic clichés such as dream sequences, flashbacks and establishing shots, using them as a language to translate personal experience into something more universal.

In my work, Pixel refers to the individually active component of a larger system. A pixel itself changes and has its own characteristics, though these are ultimately subservient to its role in the larger system of a screen. The purpose and meaning of a pixel comes not …

Dessert, Glenna Worrell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From an early age craft played a major role in my development as a person and as an artist. The traditional 1950s-70s crafts such as quilting, knitting, and sewing as performed by my mother began to influence me as a child and are now what I draw upon in my artwork. This thesis exhibition addresses my future role as a nurturer and how it relates to my relationship with my mother. It is my way of forming a connection with the rich history of craft and that of the studio potter. I draw inspiration from historical and contemporary ceramics, the …

Marais Des Cygnes, John Michael Orr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the concept, process, installation, and specific pieces in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Marais des Cygnes. The Marais des Cygnes is a river in southeast Kansas and western Missouri, near a Bleeding Kansas-era massacre site of the same name. The river is notorious for flash flooding, was named by French explorers and translates to Marsh of the Swans. The work is about a fictional wandering car thief and alcoholic named Vernon, the bad guy in my novel. Vernon is obsessed with the distant past, particularly the time before the Louisiana Purchase and the Louisiana of …