Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2002
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MFA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
Printmaking
Committee Chair
Segio Soave.
Abstract
This thesis presents "democratic" art. As defined by the author, democratic art is work that does not bear the idiosyncratic mark of the artist's hand. It is hoped that such work remains more fully open to the viewer's imaginative involvement than work that bears a more overt trace of authorship. As an invitation to such involvement, and in addition to removing the mark of the hand, the artist also creates interactive pieces, such as large-scale slide puzzles, which can be manipulated by the viewer. With these pieces the viewer can re-organize the composition of the work and thereby take as much responsibility as the artist for the meanings that are generated. As a result, the boundaries between artist and viewer may blur, and the attitude of the viewer may shift from the passive towards the active.;All of the work invites the viewer to find connections between pieces, and to make sense of permutations within a limited range of terms. The exhibition strives to use a finite set of elements to generate infinite possible meanings.*.;*This dissertation includes a CD that is multimedia (contains text and other applications not available in printed format). The CD requires the following applications: Adobe Acrobat; Windows MediaPlayer.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Grant, "Otherworldly Goods" (2002). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 1296.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/1296