Date of Award
Winter 12-2022
Document Type
Thesis
College
College of Visual and Performing Arts
Degree Program
Fine Arts
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Thesis Advisor
Stephanie Sutton
Committee Member
Claudia O'Steen
Committee Member
Alice Burmeister
Keywords
Narrative, Family, Relationships, Pendulum, Dichotomy, Duality, Experience, Confrontation, Escapism, Amaranthine, Process, Systems, Interdisciplinary Art, Video, Audio, Steel, Sculpture, Fabric, Red, Rust, Sewing, Nuance, Time, Distance Introspection, Endurance, Confusion, Perspective, Reality, Journey, Psychological Landscape, Rose, Everlasting
Committee Member
Michelle Livek Garner
Abstract
Amaranthine | adjective
am·a·ran·thine | \ ˌa-mə-ˈran(t)-thən , -ˈran-ˌthīn \
1a : of or relating to an amaranth
b : Eternally beautiful and unfading; everlasting, undying
2 : of the color amaranth; a shade of reddish-rose
My work explores the narrative I have with family in relation to who I am and how I have developed as a result of both positive and negative influences. Despite the dysfunctional dynamics that I experience with my family, I choose to remain connected to them and continue to endure and persevere through the obstacles that they create. I particularly experience these moments through varying degrees of confrontation and escapism along a pendulous spectrum.
My thesis exhibition, Amaranthine, is an exploration of process, family, and self through the use of sculpture, installation, video, and audio. These elements create an experience that travels the process-oriented path of a person attempting to understand the confusion they have regarding perspective and reality as it relates to their complex familial relationships. The use of unique art-making systems to create each piece adds nuances of time, process, introspection, narrative, and endurance; abstract process-based sculptures lead to a shadowed amaranth-red cave that houses a beautifully-rusted rose garden. This psychological landscape allows for rumination, mainly for the present, but with room for the future as the pendulous-nature of this situation is acknowledged, foreseen, and accepted as being everlasting.
Recommended Citation
Melchiorre, Christina, "Choosing Penumbra" (2022). Graduate Theses. 142.
https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/142
