Sculpture Commons^™

When The Wind Stops, Qwist Joseph

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

The sculpture I make exemplifies my interest in objects, their creation and our tendency to covet them. Humans have developed elaborate and diverse systems to categorize and dictate the value of things. As a culture we elevate and protect Art and its display is a platform in which this object obsession is exaggerated. Through the podium of art exhibition, I explore the idea of object-ness. I question the parameters around what defines something as an object, and more specifically what’s necessary to transform that thing into Art. Further, I wonder where the line is drawn between Art and the ordinary; …

Tangled Knot Tied, Shalya Marsh

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I make formal studies in layering that use abstraction and visual symbols as a metaphor for the complex relationship we as individuals have with language, interpretation, and human interaction. My current work explores ideas of connection through representations of knots and tangles. While knots can signify protection and strength, tangles allude to anxiety.

I rely heavily on format and structure as a means of conveying content. Repetition, contrast, and layering of elements suggest the complexity of relationships. The work is composed of a series of tied knots or tangles, single knot forms in multiple variations, or a combination of multiple …

Sawft.Servindat... [V1.7], Ray Ferreira

Theses and Dissertations

A descriptor of my artistic practice, a text piece, a series of linguistic musings, and more, Sawft.servindat… [v1.7] attempts to explore the dance between language, embodiment, and performativity. More specifically, the text moves through metaphor and metonym, Englishes, Spanishes, and Images, the performativity of representation and the representation of performativity —my body. My body moving across spaces and times. As part of the Sawft.servindat… series, Sawft.servindat… [v1.7] uses the scroll down format of most PDF reading software to activate the inherently embodied experience of intra-acting with technologies, resisting the dichotomy between the virtual and analog. Englishes juxtaposed with Spanishes juxtaposed …

Maybe The Gate Could Be A Fan, Erin L. Schoenbeck

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I notice with quiet thrill an individual object or shape such as a railing, an odd pattern in the cement, a handle that does not match the rest, or a surprisingly decorative form intended only for a useful purpose. Choosing a form for its potential function, strange shape or particular color, I filter it through my aesthetic. My mental repetition of the day’s stresses is changed into lighthearted wondering. Maybe that gate I passed could become a beautiful fanned shape, its silhouette in gold and pale green. It could be so tiny its functional life outdoors is transformed into delicate …

Lara Salmon, Thesis Statement, Lara Salmon

CGU MFA Theses

My art brings together materials and ideas inspired by personal experience that do not usually exist side by side. My body is the primary mechanism with which I make work, incidentally making me the subject matter of the work. I use my physical self as an instrument to coalesce and transform other materiality. Through live performance and photographic installations I create tension and balance between crude biology and bright, polished formalism. This body of work focuses on Millennial Feminism and the Middle East.

Snow Yunxue Fu Interview, Noah Fornear

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Snow Yunxue Fu (b. 1987) is an artist who lives and works in Chicago. Her work approaches the subject of the Sublime using topographical computer rendered animation installation. She exams and interprets the world around her through virtual reality, where she draws a parallel to the realms of multi-dimensionality, the physical, the virtual, and the metaphysical. Fu has exhibited her work nationally and internationally including Hong Kong Arts Center, Yellow Peril Gallery, Expo Chicago, Digital Culture Center in Mexico City, Zhou B Art Center in Chicago, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago Filmmakers, Kunsthalle Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, MoMA …

Viewer-, Author-, And Ownership In The Work Of Andrea Zittel, Amanda M. York

Theses and Dissertations

Andrea Zittel invites others to collapse the distinctions between artist, viewer, and collaborator by interacting with her usable works. This thesis explores the process of interacting with Zittel's works, and how it affects viewer-, author- and ownership.

Trauma And Human Objecthood, Leslie Kelman

Theses and Dissertations

I am processing recent traumatic personal content in multiple media. This investigation dovetails with the work I was conducting previously, that of contemplating humans as objects continuous with their environment. This represents a reduced position in the biological hierarchy for humans, or a rejection of the hierarchy itself.

The Devil Made Us Do It: Depictions Of Satan In Kentucky Folk Art, Kentucky Folk Art Center

Kentucky Folk Art Center Exhibition Catalogs

2016 Kentucky Folk Art Center exhibition catalog of artwork depicting Satan.

Mark Francis: Time & Chance, Mark Francis, Kentucky Folk Art Center

Kentucky Folk Art Center Exhibition Catalogs

2016 Kentucky Folk Art Center exhibition catalog of artist Mark Francis.

No Man's Land, Laurie Mathews

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

Subsurface, Elizabeth J. Huhtala

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Lithic, Megan Nelle Moriarty

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The creative works of Lithic employ nature as a visual meeting place to investigate the connection of art objects to the human spirit, explore a balance between scientific naturalism and spiritual abstraction, and work to expand on the use and craftsmanship of consumer and post-consumer materials.

The goal of any art work is to connect with the viewer on a spiritual level and, as an artist, the search for that relationship always brings me back to nature. The natural world is a place for moments of shared ‘awe’ and wonder. It is in nature that questions of human origin and …

Holistic Products: Designing With Time, Gifts, And Ritual, Jeremy P. Zietz

Theses and Dissertations

The notion of “you are what you buy” is an updated adage from “you are what you eat”. It makes a connection between our everyday objects and their effect on our lived experience. Looking at our relationships with our things as a type of contract, we must be intentional to shape these object contracts for our own good and health. Instead of our society’s design talents being put toward a consumerist agenda, designers must direct research and development which addresses the effects of our products holistically.

Various concepts have emerged in my creative practice which demand a deeper research and …

Touchy-Feely, Gross Stuff, Elise Marie Robbins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physical affection and visible emotion were not the way of my family. Compassion, concern, judgment, really any sentiment was expressed almost exclusively verbally while I was growing up. To me this very normal, and as an only child, I did not have much to compare it to until I started school. It was there that I saw children and adults convey emotion not just with words but also with a physical display. Though the idea of outwardly expressing emotion was not foreign to me, it was not exactly natural, and I struggled with it. or this reason, I was constantly …

So Much Apparent Nothing, Emily Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

This document contains reflections on motivations behind selected works leading up to and including my thesis exhibition so much apparent nothing. Through journal excerpts and analysis of my own psychology, I attempt to put into words my thoughts concurrent to my making, indirect as they may be. The following text shares my personal conflicts and ideologies surrounding art-making, the permanence of objects, and the acceptance of an identity in flux.

Silent Protest And The Art Of Paper Folding: The Golden Venture Paper Sculptures At The Museum Of Chinese In America, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

Housed in the Museum of Chinese in America is the Fly to Freedom collection of paper art, which were produced by a traditional folk method of Chinese paper folding. The 123 paper works were created by detainees of the Golden Venture, a freighter used to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the U.S. On the evening of June 6, 1993, the ship ran aground off the Rockaways in New York City and nearly 300 migrants, gaunt from the four-month ordeal at sea, poured out of the cramped windowless hold of the vessel. Several drowned that night, a few escaped, but the majority …

Nest: Honors Sculpture Project, Najma Motan

A with Honors Projects

This essay for the A with Honors program describes a work of art entitled "Nest" which is comprised of a nest constructed of clay straw and grass, filled with five ceramic eggs on which the artist used Arabic words that describe the comforts of home, such as joy, comfort, and closeness.

Closed For Business, Tyler Schrandt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Closed for Business is an installation which creates an immersive environment that awards the curious. The inspiration for the exhibition came from local industry and human tendency. In likeliness of a defunct factory, the installation transforms the gallery into a dimly lit mysterious space. Using mostly objects found on local farms and in everyday households, a narrative takes shape. The question "what happened here?" looms as you investigate the space looking for clues. With a keen eye for observation, you navigate the room and stumble upon the office of a misguided -- and missing -- entrepreneur. As you internalizing the …

Artscience, Dustin Swiers

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

My thesis show opened on Friday, March 11, 2016 at the 410 project's art gallery, located in downtown Mankato.

The artwork consisted of sculptures displayed on pedestals, hanging on the walls, sitting on specifically constructed arrangements, and hanging from the ceiling. The materials I used to create these sculptures have a dramatically contrasting appearance, but have one universal similarity. At some point most of the materials used were liquid or fluid. I used metals, ceramics, hand blown glass, plastics, and wax. I like to work with these materials in that fluid state because of the added flexibility and forgiveness they …