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Carousel: Performance And Ritual Of A Child's Play, Erik Maniscalco

Theses

Carousel is a series of oil paintings inspired by my seven year old

daughter, as well as my work towards becoming a childhood educator. My

aim with this project is to explore the performative and ritualistic nature of

children’s play: focusing on the creative ways children stretch and reshape

their reality through imagined play narratives. Upon the carousel’s stage,

children select a character and take part in a performed ritual. I’ve long felt

connected to the visual vocabulary found within baroque and renaissance

styles, and I am fascinated by the mixture of amusement, tradition,

religion, and distortion imbued within the …