Contemporary Art Commons^™

The Paradox Of Value, David Enrique Guarnizo

Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis project examines how, in the United States, and especially in the state of Virginia, archetypes of "wealth," "value," and "identity" have been constructed in relation to land and territory. This analysis explores the tension between the inherent value of life on the land and the economic value that can be derived from it. This tension is exemplified by a theory known as the "paradox of value", also referred to as the "paradox of water and diamonds", which was developed by the renowned Scottish economist and philosopher, Adam Smith. This theoretical framework serves as a fundamental axis for …

Crafting Cultural Power: Artistic Interventions As Tools For Political Organizing Among Los Angeles Street Vendors, Corina M. Silverstein

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on the intersections of collaborative and artistic interventions (such as collective songwriting and poetry) within the ongoing fight to legalize and decriminalize street vending in Los Angeles. Through the close partnership with Community Power Collective (CPC), this thesis analyzes the use of narrative in artistic collaborations and oral traditions throughout the political mobilization of street vendors in Los Angeles. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this investigation explores the use of early influences of street theater, to collective songwriting workshops, as well as artistic collaborations with local artists. Ultimately, suggesting CPC’s use of artistic practices and collaborations are essential …

Ebony Patterson’S …Things Come To Thrive…In The Shedding…In The Molting… (2023) As Intervention, Renee Mcgarry

Publications and Research

This paper examines the use of horticulture and botany in Ebony Patterson's 2023 exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… as it relates to the history of NYBG, the Bronx, and the populations that historically and currently reside in the borough. Using plants, blown glass, and glittering styrofoam forms, Patterson productively intervenes in the relationship between an historic, prestigious institution and a changed borough that, since the 1990s, has been walled off from the Garden. The exhibition highlights the tension between community and institution and offers up a new way of understanding …

Art As Asset: The Rise Of The Financialized Art Market And The Abstraction Of Value, Kenneth Knothe

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the financialization of art through the expanding use of art-backed loans and institutional involvement. It focuses on how artworks—once primarily valued for their aesthetic or cultural significance—are now routinely treated as financial assets within the art market. The paper uses case studies from Sotheby’s Financial Services and Mitchell F. Chan’s blockchain-based reinterpretation of Yves Klein’s Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility. Drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin, Pierre Bourdieu, and Wendy Brown, it argues that this shift undermines museums’ roles as cultural stewards and redefines the meaning of value in the art world to something more quantifiable. …

The Creative Front, Aleksandr O. Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss my thesis exhibition, The Creative Front, focusing on my materials, content, and context as they relate to each piece or body of work. This exhibition is the culmination of my work, which centers on my experience with the Russo-Ukrainian war. My work can be interpreted metaphorically, poetically, and directly through sculpture, installation, sound, and film. I am portraying very human stories and experiences from a full-scale war raging in Europe. My work is immersive, placing the viewer in an atmosphere of war, and conveying a sense of urgency and compassion for those who …

Wiring Attachment, Alexander K. Bacon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis began with a question: can diagrams create understanding, or only reflect it? Through paintings that layer automotive wiring schematics with family photographs, I explore how the human attachment system resists easy mapping. Using digital tools like Photoshop and scanning, alongside analog methods such as papier-collé and photo transfer, I examine how systems built for clarity—like wiring diagrams—contrast with the layered, often messy realities of human relationships. Drawing from attachment theory’s empirical foundation, rather than the metaphorical leanings of psychoanalysis, my work investigates how emotional bonds form, falter, and repair over time. Material loss and layering are not flaws, …

Theopoetics Prothesis: An Exploration In Faith And Form, Elise Aleman, Elise Aleman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My work is rooted in the biblical definition of faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Like the Bible’s layered complexity—its patterns, metaphors, and cultural references—faith is not merely intellectual but an active trust in what is unseen. It transcends knowledge, anchoring itself in conviction and hope. This intersection of theology and lived experience is at the core of my practice.

Theopoetics—a framework that fuses theology and artistic expression—shapes my approach, allowing faith to be embodied through form rather than merely explained. Two seemingly distinct bodies of work—one centered …

The Conservation Treatment And Technical Study Of Two Marisol Sculptures, Ruthie Rolfsmeyer

Art Conservation Master's Projects

ABCDEFG & Hi (1961-62) and Father Damien (1966-67) are both painted wooden sculptures created by Marisol during the height of her fame. Although Marisol is a well-known artist, whose fame has been rekindling since her death in 2016, there have been few technical studies of her works. Multimodal imaging and scientific analysis of these two sculptures provide insight into their structure and materials. Techniques include x-ray radiography, reflectance transformation imaging, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Key findings include the identification of toolmarks, nitrocellulose, alkyd, and acrylic paints, and a genuine diamond and pearl in …

Raisin Fingers, Sophia Hatzikos

Graduate School of Art Theses

I am a sculptor that uses site reactive interactions, video documentation, and studio-based processes to explore landscape. I investigate my multifaceted relationship of self to my sensorial memory of landscape. Through themes of memory, loss and longing intertwined with my personal connection to water. I identify the intersections of sculpture and landscape seeking ways in which environments shapes decisions in the making process.

Through case studies of two distinct landscapes, Malaki and Tyson, I look at how these environments serve as sources of inspiration and material for experimentation. By identifying the ways in which I researched at each site respectively …

Mobilizing Feminist Politics In Yugoslavia: Sanja Iveković And Vlasta Delimar’S Performance Art., Candyce Sturgeon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the radical performance works of Yugoslavian artists Sanja Iveković and Vlasta Delimar. Three performances by each artist are analyzed and juxtaposed with one another. These performances include Triangle, 1979, He is Looking at Me all the Time, 1979, and Nessie, 1981 performed by Sanja Iveković along with This was Me in 1980 when Comrade Tito Died, 1980, Visual Orgasm, 1981, and Tied to a Tree, 1985 performed by Vlasta Delimar. Throughout the paper I argue that these performances by Iveković and Delimar, along with their differing stances on feminism, create a multifaceted …

Shifting Forms: Queer Placemaking Amidst Neoliberalism In New York City Through Art, Colin J. Donnelly

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

This project explicates how queer people produce space for themselves through art in New York City amidst the prevalent neoliberal frameworks that have existed since the 1980s. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with queer artists and nonprofit workers, participant observation in art spaces, and close reading of art compiled through archival work, I explore sites of presentation (places in which art is displayed) and modes of presentation (how specific artists decide to present their art). I analyze museums and nonprofit spaces, and engage with queer artists that create what I consider to be site-specific art. I zoom in on spatial art …

Threading With Hair // Intertwined Stories, Cloris Ding

Masters Theses

“Threading with Hair // Intertwined Stories” is a poignant exploration that navigates the nuanced landscape of women's growth and identity recognition amidst biased societal influences, tracing the trajectory from the artist’s mother's generation to her own. Through a deeply personal lens, the thesis transcends individual narratives to articulate some shared female experiences. Employing reflective works in the form of jewelry, objects and writings, the study delves into female-centric topics, including the fluidity of identity, the transformative journey through various life stages, and the profound impact of societal expectations and family heritage. At the heart of this exploration is the metaphorical …

Winter Solstice, Jingwen Cao

Masters Theses

For a long time, I have been thinking about what contemporary photography is, what its position is, and what the relationship is between artists and audiences. At the same time, I was developing my concepts and photographic directions and trying to make my work and my perspective on photography relevant. Winter Solstice includes a series of essays that locate my thinking and my work. Its title references the longest night of the year.

The position of photography has changed significantly over the past few decades. The way people read photos is also changing. Perhaps because of reverence for art and …

The Diorama Of Coexistence Hypnagogia: The Liminal Space Between Dream And Reality, Yunseok Song

Master's Theses

The “Diorama of Coexistence” explores the imagined spaces where humans and animals share the same environments, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. This year-long photographic project is inspired by my Christian faith and the Genesis creation narrative, where the world was originally harmonious and unspoiled. Through my work, I aim to reimagine the natural world, not as it is, but as it could be a place where animals and humans coexist peacefully.

In researching human development and its impact on nature, I found that animals are often confined to spaces like zoo, far from their natural habitats. This led …

Embodied Visions: Interactive Installations That Reimagine Bodily Presence In Digital Imaging Apparatuses As Shadows, Yunzi Shi

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Contextualized within a history of technological development, the evolution of imaging devices and technologies is accompanied by the abstraction of spatial relationships between the body of the observer, the apparatus, and physical reality, which leads to disembodying experiences for the observing subject. Compared with devices and interactive experiences, critical reflection on the epistemological impact of digital imaging devices has less priority in computational imaging and human-computer interaction research. Taking an artistic approach, this thesis describes Embodied Visions, an exhibition featuring three interactive installations exploring the technical infrastructure for imaging and reflecting on the (dis)embodied experiences in the digital age. …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Texas Gothic, Taryn Uribe Turner

Art Theses and Dissertations

The emotional and the ecological combine to create my body of work titled, “Texas Gothic.” My thesis tells the stories of my oil paintings created through personal connections to a variety of landscapes, animals and experiences that share the setting of Texas.

Desire and regret take shape as animals and figures not fully formed or real. Unreliable narratives of the past are entangled with present tensions to create a painting that haunts and stalks.

And yet, there is hope!

Through nostalgia and sweetness and burdens, my paintings confront a shrouded future. The contradictions of time passing are explored in my …

Fragmented Bodies, Lauren Careese Alexander

Art Theses and Dissertations

Through Memory Webs and fragmented ceramic vessels, I express what it feels like to grow up living in a biracial body. I utilize mixed media to emulate a mixed-race experience. My Memory Webs are fashioned by painting on scraps of canvas and attaching them with crocheted wire and ribbon to speak to how my memory has impacted my identity. My fragmented ceramic vessels are cut up and stitched back together to represent disjointedness and un-belonging. All of my work is contextualized through the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and what the Monster may represent for people of color. I also …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

User Perception Of Gender Studies In Video Games, Quinn T. Gienapp

Honors Thesis

Alongside the increase in video game popularity, a subclass of games was formed that offer very unconventional gaming experiences. These games offer different stories that differ greatly from games made on multi-million-dollar budgets. Many of these types of games exist on the fringes of the industry and portray LGBTQ+ themes through their writing or gameplay. One of these games uses the medium of video games to process their trauma by relaying their own story. The game “He Fucked the Girl Out of Me” is an autobiographical video game that highlights the story of the Author and their experiences with …