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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Art Practice
A Thesis, Or Digressions On Sculptural Practice: In Which, Concepts & Influences Thereof Are Explained, Set Forth, Catalogued, Or Divulged By Way Of Commentaries To A Poem, First Conceived By The Artist, Fed Through Chatg.P.T., And Re-Edited By The Artist, To Which Are Added, Annotated References, Impressions And Ruminations Thereof, Also Including Private Thoughts & Personal Accounts Of The Artist, Jaimie An
Masters Theses
This thesis is an exercise in, perhaps a futile, attempt to trace just some of the ideas, stories, and musings I might meander through in my process. It’s not quite a map, nor is it a neat catalogue; it is a haphazard collection of tickets and receipts from a travel abroad, carelessly tossed in a carry-on, only to be stashed upon returning home. These ideas are derived from much greater thinkers and authors than myself; I am a mere collector or a translator, if that, and not a very good one, for much is lost. I do not claim comprehensive …
Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes
Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes
Masters Theses
Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.
In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …
America, Dreaming., Sarah Meftah
America, Dreaming., Sarah Meftah
Masters Theses
There is a version
of America
that exists
only in dreams,
a kind of folklore,
shrouded in images,
technicolor interiors,
wrapped in plastic,
ghosts of recent past
to haunt and guide;
a constant reminder.
Wishful thinking
a constructed imaginary,
one I can hold in my hand.
Popular culture and spectacle, America and the domestic ideal, capitalism and the collective unconscious of a national identity. As an artist, I am interested in the myriad images that manifest for a viewer when they think of the spectacle of American pop culture, its domestic archetypes, and the material worship it revolves around. My …
The Day The Door Flew Open, Clara Delgado
The Day The Door Flew Open, Clara Delgado
Masters Theses
A journey is a chance to better oneself, to go and come back anew. This kind of pilgrimage does not only happen in the spectacular realm of far-off travels. Often it happens where the soles of one’s feet comprehend the curvature of the land. Then, without forewarning, time opens a sliding door that appears on the recognized ground. Stepping in, the world is realized in a new way.
The writings that strike my tongue with ravishing bittersweet flavors are fictional narratives, with voyages that sail through day and night, disguised as lovely prose while critically probing the world. This written …
From Here To The Ground, Courtney Mccracken
From Here To The Ground, Courtney Mccracken
Masters Theses
Art, for me, is a thinking process. It is also a process of connection to body and place. It directs my fractured attention toward the things I care about. As I labor through process, I am gifted with a moment of attentiveness. In a time where everything feels urgent, and our perspective can be warped by the endless flood of information, making art is a chance to stop, to think, and to feel.
It is a space for holding, and a space for being held.
Recently, I have been working primarily in animation and sound design, experimenting widely across media …
Unruly And Unresolved: A Shared, Precarious Survival, Sara Inacio
Unruly And Unresolved: A Shared, Precarious Survival, Sara Inacio
Masters Theses
I'm just a little rat trying to survive,
To exist and not be perceived.
Building a home,
In a place unnatural to me.
Destroyed and rebuilt again,
I've learned to live in the toxic world you've created.
In a world that is not made for my belonging, I’ve had to find my way, to exist and build with what’s within reach. Such a constant state of construction feels oddly familiar and comfortable to me, home is always in the process of becoming. As I build, I think about how the home building process always takes up the space of others, …
Umbrella And Jellyfish, Yanran Bi
Umbrella And Jellyfish, Yanran Bi
Masters Theses
Rainy season arrives as soon as the summer begins in Shanghai. For some reason, I rarely remember to bring an umbrella with me. I have a lot of umbrellas, most of them are transparent ones bought at subway stations. When it suddenly starts pouring rain, umbrella vendors in Shanghai gather at each crowded exit of the subway sta- tions to sell umbrellas to people like me. The cheapest umbrellas they have are always the transparent ones. The whole city is turned upside down by the rain with its reflections on every street. Then a transparent umbrella opens up, then another, …
Kole, Isaiah Aladejobi
Kole, Isaiah Aladejobi
Masters Theses
This project focuses on the development of building blocks influenced by the architecture and design styles of Yoruba culture and Washington DC. These building blocks aim to provide an educational and culturally enriching experience for individuals of all ages, with a particular focus on youth.
By combining the traditional design elements of Yoruba architecture with the modern urban aesthetic of Washington DC, the building blocks offer a unique blend of cultural influences for children and adults to explore. Through hands-on building activities, users can engage with the cultural heritage of these two regions, while also developing important skills such as …
Vanitas, Sae Jung Oh
Vanitas, Sae Jung Oh
Masters Theses
Vanitas is a tribute to the missing pieces within the reconstruction of human memory, places, and data. It is a cartography of words, including home, apartment complex, reconstruction, mourning, archive, memory, memorialization, a god within, collective memory, photogrammetry, cyberspace, omnipresence, meandering, heterotopia, alleyway, construction site, and mirror. I invite readers to meander in the map of relations and be lost in the topography. What can you discover when you meander? What happens when you renounce being a subject and become an object seamlessly blended into the topography?
Curiosity Beyond The Hidden, Yi Young Kim
Curiosity Beyond The Hidden, Yi Young Kim
Masters Theses
What lies beneath the surface of vessels? This captivating thesis explores the hidden world within, drawing inspiration from traditional Korean ceramics and employing coil-built sculptures. By focusing on the hollowness of vessels, this study unveils their profound interconnectedness and inherent uniqueness.
Through spontaneous stacking of claylike glazes and textured elements, the artwork reveals mysterious processes and transformations within these vessels. Exposing the intricacies of hollow spaces, viewers are invited to contemplate the mesmerizing realms concealed within.
Intertwining elements of Korean heritagewith intricate structures, this artistic endeavor
sheds light on the hidden and challenges preconceived notions of everyday existence. The work …
Describe The City You Live In, Jingfei Hu
Describe The City You Live In, Jingfei Hu
Masters Theses
I dive into the fields: frequency (sound), wavelengths (light), shapes (conversation): they build connections. What is action without reflection? Now I’m a city drifter. Through art making and dialogue I try to drop the anchor into the futuristic turbulent ocean (of society, speed, and the status quo ). Did I drop it? Not sure. I grew up in the most fast- paced city in China, Shenzhen. I feel pressured there. Do I feel that pressure here? of a precarious, unpredictable future? These questions push me out of the turbulent ocean to grab the present.
There are three stages of time: …
To Melt, Huanzhe Hu
To Melt, Huanzhe Hu
Masters Theses
This thesis focuses on the need for a reevaluation of the relationship between humans and nature in the face of the current ecological crisis. The author argues that the dominant anthropocentric orientation, which sees nature as a resource to be exploited for human benefit, has led to over extraction and resource abuse, disrupting the balance of ecosystems. Instead, the author suggests adopting an ethical framework based on mutual understanding and appreciation, breaking the "hunter's gaze" and fostering empathy for non-human life forms. This thesis also explores the potential for new forms of communication and engagement with nature, such as through …
Coast To Coast, Zeyuan Ren
Coast To Coast, Zeyuan Ren
Masters Theses
This essay contains four bodies of work created during my graduate studies, all of which take place on either the West or East coasts, incorporating performance, photography, and video. In the first half of the paper, I examine how the theme of “displacement” is established in my initial works, and highlight the significance of the state of “being displaced” in my process of imaging and (re)understanding the ocean.
At the core of the thesis, I investigate the wave-piloting of Marshall Islanders and a particular cartographic model, the “stick chart,” which is a mnemonic device embedded with the voyager's somatic memories, …
Rooted In Topsoil, Jiaying Wang
Rooted In Topsoil, Jiaying Wang
Masters Theses
Disillusioned by my transnational identity, I have come to realize that my sense of belonging is no longer attached to any physical location, but instead to a state of mind, to an intimacy with the world. My notion of home is an obscure and unsettled—at times utopian—idea, which can be infinitely decoded, re-positioned and re-established psychologically. This thesis is an investigation of that liminal state, questioning the paradoxical place at the intersection of longing and belonging, interior and exterior, rootedness and uprootedness. Through a collection of short essays that accompany projects, I seek to unpack the precarious emotional complexities that …
Cultivar, Scott Vander Veen
Cultivar, Scott Vander Veen
Masters Theses
A memory palace is a mnemonic device that facilitates recollection by putting memory, that slippery substance, into a strictly structured mental geography. It is advisable to use a real place with which you are intimately familiar (perhaps your childhood home) as the scaffolding for the compartmentalization of whatever mental objects require organizing. Other objects, sensations, or atmospheric conditions are used to heighten the efficacy of the system—memory #1 may be found in the junk drawer in the kitchen, at dusk, nestled between a box of safety pins and a bundle of rubber bands. I am interested in the way this …
Cuando Lloro, Melissa Medina
Cuando Lloro, Melissa Medina
Masters Theses
There are moments where I am suddenly hit with a deep sentimental longing for a time that no longer exists, one that has transformed into a deep nostalgia, one that becomes more and more conflicted as time passes. Often thought of as a yearning for a recent past, or homesickness, nostalgia can be difficult to define. Although the concept and emotion associated with nostalgia may seem familiar, the word is in fact complex. Nostalgia, for the immigrant, is an escape from their marginalization; an opportunity to embrace the complexities. Painting then becomes an embrace, a direct connection between the present …
Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer
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 …
A Room Full Of Pigeons And Three Spectators, Dina Khorchid, Dina Nazmi Khorchid
A Room Full Of Pigeons And Three Spectators, Dina Khorchid, Dina Nazmi Khorchid
Masters Theses
My work explores themes of identity politics, domesticity, land and memory access - in relation to my own lived experiences as a Palestinian refugee, a daughter of a missing war casualty and an artist.
In this thesis book, I present a cumulation of thoughts, emotions and findings, along with a selection of works from the last two years.
During my time at the Rhode Island School of Design, messenger pigeons took over my studio, channeling physical and mental realms of grief and remembrance. By looking closely at the bird’s aesthetics and behaviorisms in my first semester, their resting deceased bodies …
Moretheless, Abdelghani Alnahawi
Moretheless, Abdelghani Alnahawi
Masters Theses
material investigations becoming questions with interjections
Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem
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 …
A Body Finding Freedom Within Itself, Malda Smadi
A Body Finding Freedom Within Itself, Malda Smadi
Masters Theses
When a dislocation of any type occurs, whether geographical, emotional, or spiritual, the disorder pushes the self to retreat to safety. For me, that safety is in my body. It is in this place of retreat where I locate my original home.
In this space of translocation, I forage for materials from my surroundings and places that I belong to. Moving between Dubai, Damascus, Beirut, and Providence, I shape a reality dependent on what is available. I then transform these materials, searching for the forms and relationships that emerge while meditating on home and the body as a moving vessel …
Step 10, Jinhong Cai
Step 10, Jinhong Cai
Masters Theses
Step 10 is an experiment on provoking empathy through
abstracted elements within my studio practice. I am
proposing to craft an emotional piece without leaning
on my identity. This written thesis consists of two parts:
narrative prose and an explanation of my studio practice.
While the installation is entirely devoid of cultural or
personal references, this text-based thesis is full of them
because it is intended to inform whoever is interested in
learning more about the motive behind this creation.
The questions I bought into the thought and creation
process are: Can a piece of art still successfully bring
out …
Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond The Mind, Ariel Wills
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 …