Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MFA
College
College of Creative Arts
Department
Painting
Committee Chair
Paul Krainak.
Abstract
My work examines the ways we covet extravagant objects in Western society. I explore the vain and the humble veneration of status symbols, mementos, and personal icons. Through a satire of pompous display, I critique our society's fixation on materialism.;I use a digital process to mimic commercial eye-catching tactics in my ersatz copies of pre-Modern decorations. Although my work mocks the uncultivated tastes of mainstream America, its pursuit of formal harmony and sentiment is sincere. My objects are machine produced, but they act as icons to manifest poetic sentiment.;Playful as it appears, the work cynically reflects the distorted bourgeois values of post-industrial society. It speaks of a detached sense of entitlement that we feel when we consume. My work compares colonialism of the 19th century with the global economy of the 21st century and reminds the viewer of the vain and indulgent nature of our consumer habits.
Recommended Citation
Evans, Phyllis Leverich, "Empty Pleasures" (1999). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 945.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/945