Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MFA

College

College of Creative Arts

Department

Sculpture

Committee Chair

Dylan Collins

Committee Co-Chair

Jason Lee

Committee Member

Jason Lee

Committee Member

Alison Helm

Committee Member

Robert (Boomer) Moore

Committee Member

Jeffrey Moser

Abstract

This thesis provides context for my MFA thesis exhibition, F/UTILITY, displayed in the Laura Mesaros Gallery at West Virginia University. My sculpture visually references various aspects of human culture, drawing from the natural environment, urban architecture, and ideas of work and play. These elements, often contradictory and incongruous, are, in fact, humorously subverted, transformed, and combined so that the resulting artwork is serious, playful, and arbitrary all at once. At the same time, the uncertain and sometimes involuntary interactivity of my work prompts a phenomenological viewer experience. My practice is informed by the philosophical and literary absurd, focusing on not-knowing and the suspended state of waiting. Building on the history of Dada, kinetic art, and interactivity, I reject relational aesthetics in favor of a vaguely phenomenological approach. The focus of the exhibition is on the ambiguous and uncertain relationships between contrasting elements, emphasizing the connection between the process of construction and the creation of meaning. My work and research synthesize my conception of my surroundings, which includes nature, industry, and the absurd, in order to explore utility and futility.

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