Art Dissertations and Theses
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Item Mother’s Ruin: Refracting the imperial gaze(2023) Lowe, Neil; Otago Polytechnic, Te Pūkenga; https://online.op.ac.nz/industry-and-research/research/expertise/search/By considering the histories of a colonial object on the Taieri Plain in New Zealand, this text invites readers to critically examine dominant narratives and envision alternative ways of perceiving the world. The text emphasises the importance of exploring the socio-political and economic processes that shape our experiences. It also acknowledges the contested nature of our multicultural and postcolonial realities, recognising the author’s position within the research. Situated knowledges, as proposed by Donna Haraway, become a guiding principle for understanding diverse perspectives without falling into relativism. The author then invites us to think with Slavoj Žižek and Ann Stoler about ideology, violence and imperial debris. With Žižek, we consider the operation of ideology and violence. With Ann Stoler's concept of imperial debris and ruination, we expand our gaze beyond physical structures to the effects of colonial legacies that shape contemporary realities. These ideas are then distilled into a visual lexicon of images that are transformed through layering, accumulation and juxtaposition, deploying water, space, light, shatter, digitisation, glitch and reflection in an attempt to refract the imperial gaze.Item Unpicking the blanket: Escaping the bed we were made to lie in(2023) Brown, Lissie; https://online.op.ac.nz/industry-and-research/research/expertise/search/This project focuses on the complexities of womanhood by addressing both physical and psychological aspects of being female. Generational associations between women became the basis for my research as they are instrumental in shaping our beliefs around what it means to be a woman with each generation unwittingly throwing a blanket of their experiences onto the next. It is important to acknowledge that we carry forward ripples from the past, while also being informed by events and opinions specific to our own time. While we must look through the lens of things, it is vital that we also look between things, questioning why we have these connections and what purpose they serve. Working within an auto-ethnographic methodology the personal relationship between myself and my mother provided an intimate account of the complexity of the mother daughter relationship, with particular focus on the period post World War II up to the present day. Investigation into the perceived role of women not only as mothers and daughters but as active participants within society, provides insight into the double standards that still exist in relation to gender equality. Examining how society has stitched womanhood together, it became evident that humanity continues to look at woman and womanhood through a narrow lenses that is steeped in gender bias. Cultural constructs of Western patriarchal society and feminist action both continue to shape women’s lives and the use of subtle manipulation and control is so ingrained in our cultural norms that it regularly goes unnoticed. Consistently repeating patterns, failure to consider alternatives, trying to ‘fit in’ and ‘do the right thing’, as perceived by generations older than us, are common traps to fall into. The impact on our external and internal being is monumental and often goes unacknowledged and unrecognised. Womanhood is no longer confined to the domain of the domestic environment and their role as active participants in contemporary society provides platforms for initiating great change. I believe we are in an era of disruption and am attempting to highlight the patterns of the past and the need to challenge our behaviours and ways of thinking as we step into the future. The time is ripe for new beginnings, where women do not simply participate in the world as it already exists, but actively attempt to re shape it (1). Acknowledging the fundamental characteristics and traits of women, from the matriarchal perspective rather than the traditionally accepted patriarchal viewpoint. 1.Crispin Jessa, Why I am Not A Feminist, A Feminist Manifesto. New York; Melville House Printing 2017 , xi.Item The Ageing of Little Red(2022-09) Mohring, Bronwyn G.; Otago Polytechnic; https://online.op.ac.nz/industry-and-research/research/expertise/search/The enduring significance of toys is acknowledged through an examination of the history and cultural commonality of toys, from ancient clay toys to the many and enduring uses of toys up to present times. The concepts of Donald Winnicott and Lois Rostow Kuznet link toys to the sub-conscious and the liminal and these links are important to the development of this body of work. The sculptures of contemporary artists Christina Bothwell and Undine Brod are considered with regard to their exploration of toys in their sculptural work, and these artists were influential in the project’s development. The red hooded dress and red shoes paved the way into the realm of fairy tale. Drawing on the research of Kate Bernheimer, Michelle Aldridge, Maria Tatar, Marina Warner and Francesci Vas de Silva, the project focused on fairy tales as expressions of the subconscious through their ‘fever dream’ type narrative. Jack Zipe’s theories are essential to an understanding of where this project sits within the modern context of fairy tale art. Contemporary artists Kiki Smith and Christina Bothwell, and their Red Riding Hood influenced sculptures, are compared, concerning the relevance of fairy tale in contemporary art practices. When exploring the realm of fairy tale an essential character emerged, that of the ‘Big Bad/Evil Old’. Consideration of this character developed into an examination of the monstrous and the fearful. Marina Warner and Maria Tatar link the Big Bad of fairy tales with both ancient and modern human expressions of fear and anxiety. This paved the way for the exploration of Big Bad/Evil Old as symbol of mortality, the most ancient of Evil Olds. Fairy tales have the ability to present societal norms in a manner which challenge societal preconceptions. The depiction of equines in fairy tales reveal humanity’s contradictory and nonsensical attitude toward them. The shod horse, in both fairy tale and history, paved the way for a consideration of the significance of shoes, especially those coloured red and those created in glass. Decision processes behind the use of saggar firing and the links to ‘sympathetic magic’ are examined, drawing upon Susan Stewart, James George Frazer and Richard Andree for both a contemporary and historical perspective. Smoked ceramic works and glass art are compared and contrasted in theme and technique with regard to the artist’s own works. The Aging of Little Red exhibits toy-like objects within a fairy tale narrative which provide the means for the artist to subconsciously and intuitively explore personal realities. These impart insight into inter-species, societal and historical norms. This project begins with a photo and utilizes toy and fairy tale type narrative to concretize expressions of the unconscious fever dream and a consideration of mortality.Item The Halloween Party(2023) Miller, Pippi; https://online.op.ac.nz/industry-and-research/research/expertise/search/My studio project, the final exhibition for which will also be named The Halloween Party, is a mix of individual works and a picture-book. The individual works consist of oil paintings on canvas, and gouache paintings on paper. The oil paintings deal with the figurative, although there are abstract moments to be found within them. Whether or not the figure is present, the paintings are at heart about people. Their more obviously perceivable subjects, however, move between the domestic, portraiture, and the outside environment. The individual gouache works are painted in an illustrative style, a way of painting that is suited to gouache. While they deal with the figurative, are not as realistic as the oil works. Their subject is also people, but those people are portrayed in much more fantastical ways. Both the gouache and oil paintings are accompanied by words, which are written like captions under the image. The words direct and alter the meaning of the image. My picture-book will be scanned and put together into a functional book for the final exhibition. However, each individual image (or page) is hand-painted gouache onto paper, much like the gouache individual images. Similar again to the gouache individual images, the style of the paintings leans to the illustrative, but like the oil works, abstract moments can be found within the figurative. The colour-palette of the picture book tends more toward bright, bold colours than my individual works. The picture-book follows a girl named Clarisse, as she collects objects she finds fascinating, and attempts to show them to her parents, who are both blithely busy with their work. Hurt, Clarisse runs away, but gets cold and lonely, so eventually goes back home, where her parents have not noticed her running away, but have made her a delicious dinner. The book investigates the magic of childhood, as well as the feelings of sadness, hurt, and loneliness often a part of being a child. It examines the imperfect nature of parenting, and how gestures of love can so often be missed or misunderstood by those they are intended for. As a whole, my studio project is about love, small moments that are actually big, and paint.Item Immersed: Case studies in art and ecology(2022) Cameron, Rebecca (Becky)Climate change and biodiversity loss are cultural as much as scientific events, and art can play a role in exploring and debating the current climate crisis. Observational drawing is used as a way of paying careful attention to what is here and now, to produce multiple responses to my lived experience and interconnectedness with my environment. Drawing forms a key part of my praxis, as I learn through a combination of reflection and action in art and in gardening. In seeking sustainability and an ecological civilization we need to first rewrite old ways of thinking and feeling. This thesis examines and critiques the predominant western conceptualisations of the non-human world. Ideas of nature, landscape and wilderness are considered, and how the duality between humans and the non-human they imply can be part of the colonial project. Current ideological models of ecology and new materialism are examined as to how they seek to dissolve this binary, and for what they might offer to the practices of gardening and art. Acknowledging the agency of the non-human world and the coexistence of humans within a web of relationships can lead to art that is ecological. Māori and other indigenous ways of thought and practice are considered, and are seen have many correlations with this ecological thinking. Two case studies are presented; the Nature of the National Parks, and nature in the suburban garden. I examine how art can reveal and critique these ideas and assist in moving towards a new understanding of the place of people in the world. In creating an exhibition presenting my interaction in the ecology of the garden, the intellectual and political labour of the artworks may provide a cognitive and reflective experience to the gallery audience.