Art and Design Commons^™

New Commandments, Jacob Sussman

Masters Theses

I reach into the earth, pull out mud-encrusted objects, and recombine them to define new meanings. With every object transposed, the past breaks down; new potentials form. “New Commandments” recombines historical symbolism through an intuitive building, destroying, and merging to reimagine or re-establish meaning.

The work critiques rites of passage, masculinity, and stereotypes by deconstructing how histories, ideologies, and preconceptions form.

As a queer person raised in-between Judaism and Christianity, social preconceptions and religious expectations festered my formation. Our choice is taken away at this moment of conception. To take back autonomy, I reimagine historical, and religious symbolism and transmute …

Margins (I Nvr Needed Acceptance From All U Outsiders), Jahi Lendor

Masters Theses

A comedian said, “American pie isn’t made out of apples, it’s made out of whatever you can get your fucking hands on.”1 With that, my work seeks to provide an honest representation of the infinite value of the everydayness and behavior of blackness ranging from trauma to beauty. Various mediums explore culture, class, collective memory, identity, and erasure. While resisting institutional and systemic boundaries between disciplines my practice actively seeks fluidity between media. The work often translates to (social) poetic-bricolage visualizations that combine gestures of assemblage, sculpture, installation, and painting. The work focuses on reflecting on how I see life …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Moretheless, Abdelghani Alnahawi

Masters Theses

material investigations becoming questions with interjections

A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson

Masters Theses

This body of work examines the involvement of association as it relates to our cultural interpretations of natural phenomena. Flowers and animals, both real and imagined, have been used as symbols for human morality since the beginning of human history. Two sources with which I drew inspiration from are medieval bestiaries and the Victorian practice of flower language. By combining elements from these references, I aim to pair this idea about the human need for classification with my own considerations about my identity. In combination, I also aim to highlight the responsibility that is intrinsic to curiosity. When faced with …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills

Masters Theses

Can acts of making carry the memories of our embeddedness within the world? This thesis explores how making things can nurture a sense of kinship that cuts across the organic and inorganic, erasing the distinction between living and dead, material and spiritual. Through handwork such as art-making, sewing, knitting, cooking, woodworking, and beyond, the burden of remembering and of archiving is shared across human and non-human bodies, cultivated through practices of making, and through the materials themselves. By recounting the stories of my family’s experience as Jewish immigrants in the United States, I aim to reveal how their domestic practices …

Offset Magazine, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Offset magazine had a single issue published on March 1, 1997. It was an art zine with photographs, drawings and literature created by RISD students.

Mixed Media May 20, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The May 20, 1996 issue includes articles, poems, drawings, student events, photos, film stills and comics. Also a calendar of events including Commencement and campus activities for RISD students are in this issue.

Mixed Media May 6, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The May 6, 1996 issue includes a calendar of events for May 6-May 12, 1996, letters to the editor, comics, poems, photos, drawings. The RISD endowment is described and also RISD faculty evaluations.

Mixed Media April 22, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Mixed Media began as the student publication Your Name Here. The April 22, 1996 issue includes an article about diversity at RISD. Also included are poems, drawings, photographs, comics and letters to the editor.

Your Name Here April 8, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Your Name Here was a student publication begun in the spring of 1996. The April 8, 1996 issue includes an article about the location of RISD Commencement. Also included are recipes, poems, photographs and comics and a contest to name the student newspaper.

Your Name Here March 25, 1996, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Your Name Here was a student publication begun in the spring of 1996. The March 25, 1996 issue has an article about the RISD faculty contract talks and space issues at RISD. It also includes poems, drawings, photographs and comics.

Juice May 24, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The May 24, 1993 issues includes information about RISD Commencement receptions and student shows for the end of the Spring 1993 semester. Final crits and exhibitions are also listed.

Juice May 10, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The issue of May 10, 1993 includes listings for student exhibitions, lectures and a film and video series by women.

Juice May 3, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The issue for May 3 lists events from May 3-May 8, 1993. Music, films and art exhibits of student and professional artists are listed.

Juice April 12, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. Lectures, films and events relating to RISD students were listed for the week of April 12-18, 1993. An article from the Village Voice about the performance artist Karen Finley is included.

Juice April 5, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. Women's Voices and Visions, a film and video series was listed. Lectures, films and evens related to RISD students were also listed.

Juice March 21, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. RISD's 116th birthday was celebrated on March 22. Lectures, films, and events that related to RISD students were also listed.

Juice March 14, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. Concerts, exhibitions, and events listed took place on the RISD campus and throughout Providence from March 14 until March 21, 1993.

Juice March 7, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The issue for March 7, 1993 includes listings of racial diversity lectures and other lectures, art exhibitions, concerts and films that took place in the Providence area and on the RISD campus during the week of March 8 through March 14, 1993.

Juice March 1, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The issue for March 1, 1993 includes information about RISD Cabaret performances, art exhibitions, concerts and other events that took place on the RISD campus and in the Providence area for the week of March 1 through March 6, 1993.

Juice February 21, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. Concerts, art exhibitions, films and other events on the RISD campus and the Providence area were listed.

Juice February 14, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The February 14, 1993 issue listed events relating to Black History Month on the RISD campus and in the Providence area. Art exhibitions, concerts, and films were also listed.

Juice February 7, 1993, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Juice was a short-form student publication primarily intended to publicize upcoming events occurring on or around campus. The issue of February 7, 1993 includes art exhibitions, lectures, classes and events relating to Black History Month that occurred on the RISD campus and the Providence area from February 7 through February 14, 1993. Also included is an article from the November 1992 issue of Art Forum magazine. The article is entitled Royal Slumming by Thomas McEvilley and is about the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Penny Dreadful Commission Comics No. 5, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Penny Dreadful Commission was a student organization that wanted to "demonstrate the range and expressive power of comic art by presenting a varied collection of work." All comics were student-submitted, and the publication was entirely student-run. This is issue No. 5 from May 1, 1989.

Penny Dreadful Commission Comics No. 4, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Penny Dreadful Commission was a student organization that wanted to "demonstrate the range and expressive power of comic art by presenting a varied collection of work." All comics were student-submitted, and the publication was entirely student-run. This is issue No. 4 dated April 1, 1989.

Penny Dreadful Commission Comics No. 3, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Penny Dreadful Commission was a student organization that wanted to "demonstrate the range and expressive power of comic art by presenting a varied collection of work." The issue of March 1, 1989 has a cover that parodies Time magazine.

Penny Dreadful Commission Comics No. 2, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Penny Dreadful Commission was a student organization that wanted to "demonstrate the range and expressive power of comic art by presenting a varied collection of work." This is issue No. 2 dated February 1, 1989.

Penny Dreadful Commission Comics No. 1, Students Of Risd, Risd Archives

All Student Newspapers

Penny Dreadful Commission was a student organization at RISD that wanted to "demonstrate the range and expressive power of comic art by presenting a varied collection of work." All comics were student-submitted, and the publication was entirely student-run. This is issue No. 1 dated January 1, 1989.