Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2021

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Department

Fine Arts

Degree Program

Studio Art and Design, MFA

Committee Chair

Calvert, Tiffany

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Gibson, John

Committee Member

Gibson, John

Committee Member

Reitz, Christopher

Committee Member

Rhodes, Che

Author's Keywords

Casualist painting; military; photography; holograph; textile; camouflage; semantics

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between "illusion," "allusion," and their relationship to contemporary images which announce, shield, or reference information. Beginning by discussing Casualist and Post-Digital Painting discourse, two styles I work within, we see connecting tissue in announcing and shielding of meaning. We look at the meaning of marks, and in the parallel exhibition, marks that utilize camouflage strategies appear as a metaphor for illuding to information which appears as conveying depth when there is none, and using paintings' symbols in objects that are not paintings. The work 'alludes' to what the viewer has seen before and relies on semiotics to reference contemporary events and painting. Discovering the oscillating development of camouflage (that utilized paint, assemblage, and textiles), surveillance photography, and the screen, we see that the materials that make up this exhibition have an eerie tie to warfare, and thus we begin to look at the holographic textile, also appear- ing here, as a utopian object that did not evolve within military technology. The use of holographic textiles, then, becomes the ethical solution to critiquing illusion and allusion in contemporary images due to their lack of incorporating images of oppressed or victimized communities to profitize news organizations, as one example. This thesis uses the writing styles of philosophy, critical theory, and social sciences to discuss these findings above. Meaning, we will take a lengthy amount of time introducing the various literature that this thesis contributes to and so it may at times feel like three different areas of research. This is by design, as this document serves to conclude my Master of Fine Arts studies whilst benefiting my future studies in the Digital Humanities.

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