Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Symbolists Beyond The Magic: Appropriation In The Art Of Elihu Vedder And Gustave Moreau, Rebecca B. Shalliker

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis examines the paintings of Elihu Vedder and Gustave Moreau as examples of how the late nineteenth-century Symbolist movement drew on Eastern regions as aesthetic sources for representing the spiritual. Considering the iconographic and conceptual overlap with the Spiritualist movement, it explores how these groups contributed to constructing an image of the “East” as inherently mystical. While existing scholarship analyzes the Symbolist movement’s engagement with psychoanalytical concepts such as the subconscious and dream state, the role of cultural appropriation in shaping the Symbolist aesthetic has been largely overlooked.

The depiction of Eastern iconography as fantastical will be explored through …

El Presidio Hispano-Colonial: Estudio Del Discurso Moderno De Fortificación Del Imperio Español A Traves De Planos Y Mapas, Javier E. Astorga Villarroel Ph.D.

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project delves into the processes of ideation, design, projection, and knowledge-transfer around the Presidio, an iconoclastic fortification system deployed by the Spanish Empire while projecting its colonial power toward the Transatlantic region. Based on Bruno Latour’s classic theory on the agency of networks of meanings (also known as new materialism) applied to historical cartography, my investigation examines the production of techno-military knowledge around the presidios as they were depicted through plans, maps, and manuals while mapping out border areas over North America and the Caribbean, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. With archival research work performed at …

The Social Life Of Plants: Botanical Representations In Moche Art, Breanna Fae Reiss

Art & Art History ETDs

The Moche were semi-autonomous communities who thrived in the ten fertile riverine valleys of Peru’s northern coast between the late fourth and ninth centuries CE. Phase IV (c. 590–700 CE) Southern Moche ceramics feature intricate fine line visual narrative scenes with many multivalent symbols and motifs. This dissertation intends to understand why plants begin to play a more significant role in the Moche iconographic corpus in this period. I explore the interests of elites, the ecological web interweaving image and environment, and species identification. The local flora was affected on one hand by naturally occurring changes in weather and environment …

Imperial Architecture And Absolute Chronology In The Inka State: The View From Northern Chile, Beau G. Murphy

Anthropology ETDs

Scholars often evaluate the political aspects of imperial architecture in terms of the symbolism of specific buildings, leaving a gap in our understanding of the political calculations of overall site layouts. This study of the architecture of the Inka provincial capital of Turi, located in the Atacama of northern Chile, identifies aspects of planning in the site’s layout that extend our knowledge of the use of architecture by past empires to communicate political messages. In so doing, the study addresses multi-scalar issues of a neglected Inka chronology, including the chronology of Turi itself, of Inka rule of the Upper Loa …

Building Materials Cut From The Earth: A Look At Sod Construction Around The World And In New Mexico, Giulia Caporuscio

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Terrón, or sod, is an earthen building technology that is being lost. The blocks are cut directly from the ground, generally along banks of bodies of fresh water, marshlands, or grassland valleys. The resulting blocks are clay rich with plant root systems that provide strength to the construction material. This building material is found in archeological and modern structures around the world. Today the material and knowledge behind this earthen technology is being lost.

This paper starts by summarizing other studies of sod construction in Indigenous cultures of the Americas, homesteaders of the Plains of the United States and Canada …

A Nomination For The Oliver La Farge House To The Historic Santa Fe Foundation’S Register Of Properties Worthy Of Preservation, Hayden D-L Mcafee

Architecture and Planning ETDs

647 Old Santa Fe Trail is a traditional one-story adobe house in the territorial style. Constructed in 1867, it has a long history and has played a significant role in the development of Santa Fe. Sitting on the original path of the Santa Fe Trail and later Route 66, it has witnessed over 150 years of history both outside and within its doors. It was occupied by the Pulitzer Prize winning author and respected anthropologist Oliver La Farge from 1947-1963. La Farge was an important figure in the Santa Fe community, most recognized for his novels and activism, advocating for …

El Paso Segundo Barrio Muralism: Barrio History, Memory, And Identity In Community Artwork, Eduardo García

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

The border city of El Paso, Texas has a longstanding tradition of muralism in one of its oldest neighborhoods- the downtown Segundo Barrio. Though these manifestations have not received as much scholarly attention as other borderland muralist traditions, they echo a similar theme of community artwork focused on sociohistorical issues, cultural memory, and barrio identity relevant to their geopolitical space. Through a study of mural artists and programs in the downtown El Paso area, I view the use of specific iconography and themes as expressions of Segundo Barrio history, memory, and identity. These artists have continued a lineage of …

The Origins And Development Of Textile Writing In Peru, William Mead Cheek

Art & Art History ETDs

Scholars once considered Inka khipus (14^th-16^th CE) to be a technological development unique to the Inka Empire. We now know that the earlier central Andean Wari (6^th-11^th CE) also made use of khipus, calling into question the Inka primacy of the technology. Understanding the origins and transformation of khipu notation in the Andes sheds light on the ways that information technologies figured into Andean state formation and administration, and impacts larger understandings of how tactile notational systems develop into writing and information storage. This study articulates how, just as the Inka inherited khipu technology …

Contemporary Alaska Native Identities: Creation And Curation By Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Tess Mccoy

Art & Art History ETDs

I focus on contemporary Alaska Native artist, Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq, Athbaskan, Irish, German), her works of art, exhibitions, and her curatorial practices to explain the presentation history of Native American people and how this affects present-day exhibitions. Through her work, I explore the importance of agency of Native people through identity, depictions of themselves, and their people in museum spaces. I examine the history of museum culture as the way in which indigenous agency is removed and reconstructed to fit the needs of interest groups. In contrast, Kelliher-Combs and other advocates attempt to intervene and interrogate the persistence of archaic …

Paper Presented At The National Council Of Preservation Education Conference, Samuel E. Sisneros

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Historic preservation’s principles and practices directly correlate and support the charge of librarians and archivists to provide resources for the public and contribute to scholarship and community building. This paper, presented at the National Council of Preservation Education conference in Denver, Colorado (Oct. 10-12, 2019), will discuss the research methodologies, historical context and preservation issues of a recovery project of an historic site in New Mexico.

Cultural Imprint: A History Of Northwest Coast Native And First Nations Prints, India Rael Young

Art & Art History ETDs

Cultural imPRINT provides the first substantive art historical investigation into Northwest Coast Indigenous prints. Since the 1960s, Northwest Coast artists have employed the print medium to share their histories, heritage, and culture amongst each other and with the larger world. Because print artists number in the hundreds, and print editions in the thousands, this dissertation takes a socio-cultural approach to understanding the purposes for the medium’s production and circulation. First, it analyzes the deep histories of reproduction in the North American art world and in Northwest Coast Indigenous communities, asserting that reproduction within coastal communities serves to perpetuate history from …

Curated Exhibit Art In Medicine: On The Fabric Of The Human Body, Laura J. Hall

Posters and Presentations

The Art in Medicine: On the Fabric of the Human Body exhibit, curated by Laura J. Hall, MFA, and sponsored by the New Mexico Health Historical Collection at UNM’s Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, highlighted the 1543 anatomy book De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius. This Renaissance work united artistic innovation with anatomical science, contributing to advances in medicine. The exhibit offered a glimpse into the intersection of art and medicine during the Renaissance and was accompanied by a suggested reading list and public programming. The exhibit was nationally recognized, winning a poster design and marketing award from …