Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
- Keyword
-
- Art (3)
- Education (3)
- Sculpture (3)
- Active Imagination (2)
- Anywhere People (2)
-
- Art Therapy (2)
- Ceramic art (2)
- Ceramics (2)
- Collage (2)
- Craft (2)
- Culinary (2)
- Cultural Objects;Digital Art;Instagram;Internet Aesthetics;Post-Internet;User Generated Content (2)
- Depersonalization (2)
- Derealization (2)
- Design (2)
- Dissociation (2)
- Fiber art (2)
- Gratitude (2)
- Historical perspective;Japanese war orphans;post-war live;World War II (2)
- Illustration (2)
- Jung (2)
- LGBTQ identity (2)
- Liminality (2)
- National identity (2)
- Pottery (2)
- Psychology (2)
- Queerness (2)
- Recovery (2)
- Rural (2)
- Social mobility (2)
Articles 1 - 30 of 79
Full-Text Articles in Fine Arts
Brief Candles: Memory, Degradation Of Time, Indices And Activation, Jared A. Dominique
Brief Candles: Memory, Degradation Of Time, Indices And Activation, Jared A. Dominique
Theses - ALL
This thesis explores the relationship between landscape, memory, and image-making through a multidisciplinary practice spanning photography, painting, and collage. Rooted in early experiences with skateboarding as a framework, the work adopts a subcultural way of seeing that reinterprets urban space as fluid, contingent, and open to reconfiguration. This perspective informs an ongoing investigation of post-industrial and altered environments as sites marked by both physical and historical violence. The project frames these landscapes as “spectral,” holding traces of human activity, memory, and absence. Alongside this external mapping, it examines an internal landscape shaped by visual memory, personal experience, and mediated imagery, …
Silence After Freedom, Md Minhajul Abedin
Silence After Freedom, Md Minhajul Abedin
Theses - ALL
The project examines how the 1947 Partition of Bengal and India and its fraught legacies continue to shape communal identities and lived experience in Noakhali, Bangladesh. I have used photography as a tool to construct historical memory and to examine how memory and violence are inscribed in place, while visual practice can revisit histories and engage with contemporary lived experience, which official narratives have ignored. I chose Noakhali as a site to understand the regional realities of the Indian subcontinent in a post-colonial era. Noakhali is a southern district of Bangladesh, where I was born and raised. This area has …
Cruising The Unseen: Queer Semioerotics And The Aesthetics Of Denial, Carl Voss
Cruising The Unseen: Queer Semioerotics And The Aesthetics Of Denial, Carl Voss
Theses - ALL
My art practice is rooted in the body—its pleasures, longings, limits, and shared vulnerabilities. I work across painting, printmaking, and drawing, utilizing a strategy coined Queer Semioerotics. My process starts with lived experience in queer communities, particularly within nightlife, the Pup Play community, and other intimate spaces of connection. My work traces how desire, memory, and care take visual form through documentation, material play, and modes of denial. These works explore how joy and intimacy continue despite anti-Queer sentiment, social isolation, and state violence. Through gestures of withholding, redaction, and illegibility, the works create openings for longing and recognition rather …
Drowned, Pleasured And Veiled, Taylor Simone Gearhart
Drowned, Pleasured And Veiled, Taylor Simone Gearhart
Theses - ALL
Drowned, Pleasured and Veiled explores how societal ideas around romantic passion can mask manipulative and violent behavior. It examines historical and pop cultural representations of romance that give cover to the everyday violence that patriarchy visits on women within intimate relationships. This body of work explores themes of shame, control, desire, and the ways physical and emotional violence can be threaded throughout those experiences. Through photography and performance, the artist visualizes and interrogates the ways power pervades intimate relationships.
Talking To The Eyes: Paradoxes Of Ineffability And Effusivity In Mark-Making, Theodore Xavier Berg
Talking To The Eyes: Paradoxes Of Ineffability And Effusivity In Mark-Making, Theodore Xavier Berg
Theses - ALL
Redefining mark-making as an active form of material signification has helped me understand my experience of the paradox of ineffability. This experience is as accurately described by the term effusivity as it is by ineffability, because it is not a matter of what cannot be expressed, but rather of what cannot not be expressed; of the experience that inescapably accompanies expression and signification. As our material means of expression and signification evolve digitally, the consequences of their contradictions become more discernible.
Everything Waits In The Dark: The Silence Had A Pulse And It Was Mine, Sophia Hashemi
Everything Waits In The Dark: The Silence Had A Pulse And It Was Mine, Sophia Hashemi
Theses - ALL
Sophia Hashemi’s work examines collage and screenprinting as methods for navigating uncertainty, memory, and the shifting architecture of the self. Her practice engages making as a negotiation between control and surrender, where meaning emerges through attention to instability rather than resolution. Drawing from Dada photomontage, German Expressionism, and film noir, alongside frameworks such as Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism and Michel Foucault’s Power/Knowledge, she explores disruption as a psychological and structural strategy in works that move between visibility and concealment, past and present, intuition and construction. Hashemi positions art-making as a cyclical practice where fragmentation reconstructs memory and multiplies the self …
Apparatus Of Relief: On Sustained Exhaustion, Jiayue Yu
Apparatus Of Relief: On Sustained Exhaustion, Jiayue Yu
Theses - ALL
This thesis examines how contemporary capitalism manages a shared condition of exhaustion—the accumulation of stress, alienation, and mental fatigue—by offering calibrated forms of relief that leave its underlying causes intact. Approaching exhaustion as a collective and structurally produced condition, I make photographs that trace how it is softened and normalized within the spaces we inhabit and move through in our daily lives. Central to the project are what I describe as “apparatuses of relief”: infrastructural features embedded in public and semi-public spaces that are designed to regulate affect and soothe nerves. Operating beneath the surface, these elements promise momentary relief …
“The Fluid Archive” Innovating The Past, Protecting The Future (Virtual Reality And Cultural Preservation), Umar Bashir
“The Fluid Archive” Innovating The Past, Protecting The Future (Virtual Reality And Cultural Preservation), Umar Bashir
Theses - ALL
ABSTRACT This thesis repositions cultural preservation as an experiential and interpretive practice rather than a purely documentary one. Centered on selected Mughal-era monuments of the Walled City of Lahore—structures increasingly affected by environmental decay and urban transformation—it investigates how the sensory and atmospheric dimensions of heritage can persist beyond material deterioration. Rather than reconstructing these sites through strict architectural fidelity, the project proposes The Fluid Archive, an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment that prioritizes embodied experience, spatial perception, and memory-driven reconstruction. Acknowledging that history is a constructed narration of the past, the project engages digital technologies as active agents in …
Welcome To Hotel Thai: Labor, Love, And The Space Between My Mothers, Tripty Tamang Pakhrin
Welcome To Hotel Thai: Labor, Love, And The Space Between My Mothers, Tripty Tamang Pakhrin
Theses - ALL
This thesis explores maternal labor, silence, and family boundaries through my experience of growing up at Hotel Thai, a restaurant and home located on the open border between Nepal and India. The hotel is run by my three parents: my mother, my father, and his first wife. My two mothers live and work side by side every day but do not speak to each other. Their silence is not emptiness, but a way of surviving and holding the family together. This paper discusses my film, performance, installation, and printmaking works to explore how care, memory, and labor are expressed without …
Toys And Gems, Neil Mattern
Toys And Gems, Neil Mattern
Theses - ALL
This thesis presents an overview of the body of work I have developed during my time at Syracuse University, along with the concepts, motivations, and experiences that inform it. It examines how my education has shaped both my artistic voice and technical approach, tracing the influence of key mentors, historical and contemporary artists, and personal experiences. The document also provides detailed descriptions of my process, with particular attention to copperplate etching and the integration of commercial aesthetics into fine art practice. Finally, it outlines the future trajectory of my work through the lens of NeilMart LLC - my evolving platform …
Where The Soul Belongs: The Search For A Meaningful Life Through Han Funerary Art — With A Focus On The Mawangdui T-Shaped Painting And Jinqueshan Han Tomb Silk Painting, Tong Su
Theses - ALL
Perceptions of life and death are deeply embedded in the artistic expressions of a society, shaped by its cultural, philosophical and social environment. This study explores how funerary paintings from the early Han dynasty - the Mawangdui T-shaped painting and the Jinqueshan Han tomb silk painting - reflect evolving views of life and the afterlife under changing social conditions. While both paintings derive from the funerary traditions of Chu culture and Daoist beliefs in immortality, their differences highlight a significant shift: the Mawangdui T-Shaped Painting emphasizes ascent to the heavenly world through nature worship and ancestral connections, while the Jinqueshan …
From Descent To Creation – Women Descenders In Katabasis Stories, Ruilin Shi
From Descent To Creation – Women Descenders In Katabasis Stories, Ruilin Shi
Theses - ALL
Katabasis, the journey to the underworld and back, is a classic narrative in mythologies and modern literature around the world. However, the uniqueness of the women descenders and the connection between the underworld and femininity remain underexamined. This thesis examines the differences between men and women descenders in Katabasis narratives, including their different narrative structures, relationship with the underworld, and psychological needs in this journey. Using a comparative analysis of classical and modern katabasis narratives, this study employs a feminine perspective to examine the classic descent stories across different cultures and time periods. The student reveals the unexamined reasons why …
Illustration As Analysis: Discussing Gender Bias And Stereotypes In The Design Of Female Characters In Chinese Video Games, Hanyu Shi
Theses - ALL
This research is dedicated to examining gender bias in the design of female characters in Chinese video games, and exploring how illustration strategies can effectively promote the transformation of female characters from stereotypical and one-dimensional to more diverse and three-dimensional representations.Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this research synthesizes and applies a multifaceted research approach that includes a literature review, sociological and feminist theoretical frameworks, semi-structured interviews, in-depth case studies, and visual cultural analysis. By combing the existing literature and several computer game cases on the market, this research reveals the profound influence of traditional cultural concepts …
Exploring Self-Narratives Through Visual Art: How Young Female Artists Form Their Identity, Jingyang Zhou
Exploring Self-Narratives Through Visual Art: How Young Female Artists Form Their Identity, Jingyang Zhou
Theses - ALL
This paper focuses on exploring how female artists are able to develop their identity from research on self-narratives in their work. Many artist with a strong and unique voice incorporates aspects of their personality and perspective into their work (Robinson, 1985). Among them, I have observed that contemporary female artists in their twenties have navigated social changes and experienced psychological struggles while striving to understand themselves and find their role in the society. In this process, self-narratives have emerged as a vital and indispensable tool. In this paper, I will study the related theories, study the work of historical and …
Annihilation, Reconstruction And Harmony In Carnal Desire, Yukang Tao
Annihilation, Reconstruction And Harmony In Carnal Desire, Yukang Tao
Theses - ALL
This thesis investigates the aesthetic, ethical, and philosophical implications of meat consumption and bodily commodification of humans and animals within capitalist hierarchies through the lens of digital art, performance and sculpture. Focusing on the intersection of humanity, animality, and technological embodiment, the project interrogates how contemporary systems of power aestheticize violence and disguise exploitation under the guise of ethical consumption. Inspired by critical theories, particularly of Amber Husain, Jacques Derrida, George Bataille, and Donna Haraway, the thesis examines the ambivalent tensions between seduction and slaughter, subjectivity and domination, and how these dynamics are embedded in both animal and human exploitation. …
Hope In The Living Water, Athena Grace Schamowski
Hope In The Living Water, Athena Grace Schamowski
Theses - ALL
This thesis focuses on the concepts and ideas behind my paintings. It aims to explain the conceptual and theological aspects of my works as well as the importance of faith in a Christian’s life. Using my own experiences, I reveal how faith can help us understand sufferings, and how through our faith-related experiences we mature in spirit, learn to understand God’s ways, and ultimately enjoy His companionship. Though our faith does not live by understanding all the ways of God, by growing in faith we will understand in spirit that all things will work out for good for those who …
Chinese Women’S Perspectives In Metaphorical Narratives: Exploring Identity, Growth, And Societal Expectations Through Illustration, Cancan Jin
Theses - ALL
This thesis explores the struggles and growth of Chinese women through metaphorical narratives, focusing on how they navigate societal expectations, gender inequality, and personal identity. First, it examines the importance of metaphor and anthropomorphism in storytelling. It analyzes how these techniques are used to address women's issues. Second, it explores the social background of Chinese women, from the May Fourth Movement, which challenged traditional gender roles, to the socialist era’s push for labor equality, and the modern struggles of workplace discrimination and the "double burden." Third, it introduces Tortoise on the Way, a visual thesis written and illustrated by the …
The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings
The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings
Theses - ALL
The Idiot's Asylum: “What better place to do it than from my own grave?” is an essay that examines how vulnerability and collaboration operate as the throughlines of collective creativity. By utilizing live performance, large-scale installation, video, food, and humor, I explore how immersing my audience in a unique experience encourages them to bear witness to or physically engage in a social and vulnerable act of trust – especially within a state of uncertainty. I consider historical and cultural movements centered around radical play, humor, and participation such as Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus, Situationism, and feminist performance art to be foundational …
Allegories In Fiction: Shaping Our Thoughts And Outcome Of Technological Advancements, Rick Li
Allegories In Fiction: Shaping Our Thoughts And Outcome Of Technological Advancements, Rick Li
Theses - ALL
This thesis investigates how fictional storytelling, particularly in science fiction films, games, and literature, influences real-world technological advancements and public perception of innovation. By examining recurring themes such as automation, technological overdependence, ethical dilemmas in AI, this study highlights how media functions as a cultural reflection to reality, and as a speculative tool. While drawing on popular examples like The Terminator (1984), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), I, Robot (2004), and The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021), this research also considers the importance of contemporary and minority voices like artist Kapwani Kiwanga in reimagining futures beyond dominant Western narratives. These stories reflect …
Breaking Boundaries: Memory And Female Identity, Hui Qi
Breaking Boundaries: Memory And Female Identity, Hui Qi
Theses - ALL
My artistic practice revolves around material exploration and transformation. Initially, I focused on wearable metal jewelry, as its precision and independent craftsmanship allowed me to express the strength of female identity. Inspired by Mindy Herrin-Lewis’s use of micro-sculpting and her integration of ceramics and metal enameling, I began incorporating color, texture, and layered surfaces to express emotion and personal narrative. By merging metal, enamel, ceramics, and found objects, I create contemporary jewelry and sculptural pieces that bridge traditional craftsmanship with modern storytelling. This thesis explores how art serves as a tool for reshaping identity and reclaiming autonomy. In navigating the …
Existing Now In Space And Time: In A Body With Limits On Both, Kirstin Dunlap
Existing Now In Space And Time: In A Body With Limits On Both, Kirstin Dunlap
Theses - ALL
Kirstin Dunlap’s work is deeply rooted in her understanding of the personal connection between the body and the Earth. Every individual’s life experience is shaped by their relationship with these two bodies—both of which undergo growth, erosion, and decay processes. For Dunlap, there is a striking similarity between these two realms: both are places of tension, where struggles for survival unfold. She sees herself in the fringes of the Earth, in areas where natural forces collide. This conflict mirrors a personal battle within her own body, where her immune system mistakenly attacks itself, resulting in a body that is progressively …
In Favor Of The Mother-Artist: The Case For Self-Actualization In Motherhood, Lottie Elizabeth Caiella
In Favor Of The Mother-Artist: The Case For Self-Actualization In Motherhood, Lottie Elizabeth Caiella
Theses - ALL
This thesis paper discusses the symbiotic relationship between the roles of mothering and being an artist and makes the case for why art made by mothers can have a lasting impact on both society as well as within the family dynamics of the artists’ lives. The obstacles that stand in the way of mothers pursuing art, or even pursuing becoming her full self, are many. This paper reimagines what the role of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs might look like from the lens of a caretaker, and how it can be an overall triumph for society from a wider perspective. This …
Cultural Rebirth: The Application Of Character Design In The Promotion Of Chinese Cultural Heritage, Fan Tang
Cultural Rebirth: The Application Of Character Design In The Promotion Of Chinese Cultural Heritage, Fan Tang
Theses - ALL
This thesis explores an innovative approach to communicating and revitalizing traditional Chinese stories through the art of character design applied to artifacts in the British Museum. The author is a commercial illustrator inspired by traditional Chinese culture and dedicated to communicating the beauty and richness of it to a global audience. This study aims to breathe new life into cultural artifacts by combining visual art and character design to transform Chinese artifacts into vivid characters. The thesis discusses the unlimited potential of character design for cultural communication and heritage preservation and how this approach can increase the visibility and impact …
Rage Against The Archive: Institutional Critique Through New Media Art, Anshul Roy
Rage Against The Archive: Institutional Critique Through New Media Art, Anshul Roy
Theses - ALL
In this paper, I discuss my encounter with the colonial lens of photography in the New York Public Library’s digital archives, which culminated in my thesis project Rage Against the Archive, comprising of video, performance and new media art that critically engages with the question of visual ethics and how institutional archives should display and disseminate certain historical images online. Each chapter in this paper details a significant paradigm shift I encountered during my MFA that transformed my creative practice into a research-based conceptual approach. I draw on scholarship related to photography in colonial India, archives, institutional critique, electronic civil …
Glittered Realities, Dramatic Bodies: Abject, Camp, And Empathy, Grace Otten
Glittered Realities, Dramatic Bodies: Abject, Camp, And Empathy, Grace Otten
Theses - ALL
Glittered Realities, Dramatic Bodies: Abject, Camp, and Empathy explores the roles of disgust, social performance, and compassion within my art practice. This essay examines empathetic aesthetics as a tool for strengthening the relationship between the artist and the viewer, while also delving into the repulsiveness of abject art and the performative elements of Camp. Through thematic sections focusing on sculpture and video performance art, Glittered Realities, Dramatic Bodies: Abject, Camp, and Empathy illustrates how bodily experience and identity exploration contends that understanding human vulnerability and the interplay between abjection, theatricality, and empathy enriches both an art practice and worldview.
Nomadic Culture And The Pre-Islamic Era Of Turkic Civilizations: A Study Of Shamanism, Lifestyle, And A Modern Societal Reinterpretation, Atagun Ilhan
Theses - ALL
This thesis serves as an exploration of my cultural heritage during the pre-Islamic era of the Turks. I find this topic particularly significant because the pre-Islamic era often receives little attention in Turkey's cultural discourse, and there are even efforts to erase this era, largely influenced by the indoctrination policies of Islamic-driven Turkish governments. My aim is to delve into the cultural, religious, and diverse modes of living of the pre-Islamic nomadic Turkic people who inhabited Eastern Asia. The investigation begins by elucidating Nomadism within its geographical context. Furthermore, it delves into cultural and religious aspects such as shamanism, temples, …
Selling Water To A Fish: Study Of The Visual Narrative In Tourism Advertising, Ziwei Aletta Ren
Selling Water To A Fish: Study Of The Visual Narrative In Tourism Advertising, Ziwei Aletta Ren
Theses - ALL
In the new era dominated by visual culture, the realm of tourism increasingly relies on artistic tales to brand and market destinations. The power of storytelling, intertwined with art, can invite viewers to create psychological and emotional connections with corners of the world yet unexplored. This thesis explores the profound role of visual narratives in tourism advertising, revealing how they forge emotional and psychological connections between viewers and unexplored places. From the historical roots of advertising in ancient civilizations to the modern digital age, visual narratives have evolved to meet the changing desires of travelers, emphasizing authenticity and immersive experiences. …
Visualizing The First Visit To The Red Cliff Structural Analysis, Jinning Wang
Visualizing The First Visit To The Red Cliff Structural Analysis, Jinning Wang
Theses - ALL
This article explores how individuals can achieve spiritual freedom in the face of adversity and the twists of fate, drawing inspiration from the famous ancient Chinese poet Su Shi's First Visit to the Red Cliff. The thesis will work in two directions: first, from a philosophical and Buddhist perspective, it analyzes Su Shi's path to self-redemption during the creation of First Visit to the Red Cliff. Second, it combines my own experiences and dialogue with Su Shi in my artworks. The thesis takes both Su Shi's and my perspectives, using Su Shi's challenges in his life as a starting point …
Frightened Birds: An Exploration Of Insecurity And Its Artistic Expression, Chenyu Wang
Frightened Birds: An Exploration Of Insecurity And Its Artistic Expression, Chenyu Wang
Theses - ALL
This thesis aims to examine the root causes of human insecurity and to explore how to live with insecurity, both theoretically and visually. The nature of insecurity is further explored by analyzing it in a philosophical sense and making an analogy with Albert Camus’ understanding of “absurdity.” As a universal feeling, insecurity has enormous potential to be explored as an artistic topic. Creating and thinking from this feeling can trigger the audience’s emotional resonance and inspire more thinking in response. Insecurity is about meaning, about human longing and expectation, about the absurdity that one cannot escape. By analyzing insecurity, one …
Love Or Control? Analyzing Emotional Expression Within East Asian Family Through Artworks, Wenyi Qian
Love Or Control? Analyzing Emotional Expression Within East Asian Family Through Artworks, Wenyi Qian
Theses - ALL
The author's own spirited and unconventional childhood defied societal norms, challenging conventional expectations for a young girl. In the name of love, their parents endeavored to guide them towards a more reserved and compliant path. Drawing from these personal experiences, this research aims to unravel the intricate fabric of emotional expression within East Asian families and its profound impact on familial relationships and individual psychological well-being through the lens of artistic works. These themes of love and control frequently surface in the creations of East Asian artists, providing a unique perspective to deepen our understanding of the complex emotional dynamics …