METAMORPHASIS

 

<--RAVISH

 

------The purpose of my thesis is to help continue to drive the creative and

the innovative into the mainstream, making art more relevant and

inclusive in society overall. Our evolving urban landscape and

increasing technological advancements have incited a wave of

creations that begin to blur the line between high art and low art. Art,

and the creative voice, is a potent form of discourse that has an innate

way of tapping into the pulse of an era, the rhythms and dissonances of

a people. I am personally motivated to opening up the streams of these

discourses to a broader echelon of society from the current

museum/gallery level.

-------To represent the spirit behind these ideals, I would like to create an

installation piece that questions the barriers between high art and low

art by making a connection between art and artifact. The underlying

impulse for the project is that humans are storytellers by nature and

instinctively collect and preserve objects to preserve narrative. Within

the formal setting of the gallery/museum, I would like to compose an

informal room, lush with color, intimate in nature much like a living

room within a womb. The soundscape will be subtle, but enough to be

communal, and the goal of the environment will be composed to appeal

to our sensory essence. Once within the room, a limited capacity of

people (probably 8 at most) will be invited to sit around a table of

photographs of people and old letters. The photographs will be a

variety of modern, contemporary, vintage, and foreign images, meant to

be held, passed around, and hopefully, spark conversation amongst the

group. The idea is that we are compelled to create narrative out of our

own curiosity, and to also highlight that we are always shedding pieces

of our own narratives, leaving ourselves open to the interpretation and

discussion of others, consciously or not. The goal of the piece is to get

participants to question what objects we choose to represent our

society’s narratives, why we choose to preserve some over others, and

how we choose to share them. It is also an attempt to open people up to

the possibility of becoming a part of the journey. Breaking the no-touch

etiquette of the art audience, transforms the bystander from gazer to

participant of the creative process.

-------This project rests on the premise that these broad concepts are best

communicated through that which is familiar and can be related to, the

family photo. It is also mostly experimentation, a sociological art

project that is shaped by the participants just as much as by the creator.

This project is extensive because it requires even further research into

the construction of meaning, and the place for originality within an

increasingly mass-marketed, corporatized state. I also anticipate that

traveling will further enrich the ultimate goal, to accumulate

photographs for the installation itself, but also to better familiarize

myself with the guerrilla art movements that have been occurring

through out the last few years that manifest the outgrowth of art into

the public sphere. I also want to include grant writing as part of my

thesis, primarily to fund the installation piece, but also to learn an art I

will inevitably need for my future endeavors. With the guidance of

Sandy Stone and Kate Catterall, I will manifest this project over the

course of the spring and fall semesters of 2004.