Art
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/141070
2024-03-28T15:23:07ZRe-enacting craft in times of war : Allison Smith and Stephanie Syjuco's activist art
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/163694
Re-enacting craft in times of war : Allison Smith and Stephanie Syjuco's activist art
Zechnowitz, Jessie Lauren
This thesis explores the artistic and political significance of the work of Allison Smith and Stephanie Syjuco, focusing on the manufacture of objects as a type of performance art, and allusions to historical conflict in postmodern performative practice. By looking at how these artists interface with craftivism, performance art, and re-enactment, I have highlighted how their work alters contemporary understandings of historical events. This recontextualization of historical events is a purposeful political mode of artistic activism.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZWill the real Otto Dix please stand up? : Dix, Nietzsche, and Lacan
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/163689
Will the real Otto Dix please stand up? : Dix, Nietzsche, and Lacan
Nathan, Wurster Bryan
This thesis is an analysis of paintings created by the German modernist Otto Dix (1891-1969) through the dual methodology of Nietzschean philosophy and Lacanian psychoanalysis. This thesis focuses on self-portraits made by Dix, but analyzes them as part of a larger output by the artist. The content of the self-portraits is studied and interpreted according to values and symbolism espoused in Nietzsche’s writings, with a particular focus on Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The self-portraits are also studied as representations that reflect Dix’s self-image as well as a desired public image that he projected through these works. By looking at Dix’s self-portraits through this two frameworks, this thesis argues that Dix’s self-portraits function not as social critique, but as a powerful form of self-identification that functions to present an idealized Dix. The presence of this idealized Dix affects the meaning of those social images and requires the viewer to regard Dix’s work as a subjective reflection of his identity, rather than as an objective social critique.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZLiving Kirishitan icons of early modern Japan
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/142350
Living Kirishitan icons of early modern Japan
Thomas, Ema Kubo
The period of underground Christianity in Japan from 1639-1873 produced a distinctly Japanese sect of the Catholic religion. The icons produced during period reflect the Japanese Christian believers’ deep Buddhist roots. Most scholarship focuses on the European Jesuit and Japanese primary textual sources, and Christian paintings from this period have largely been dismissed as folk art. An examination of the Buddhist practices and iconography that influenced the underground Japanese Christians reveals aspects of their belief that has yet to be addressed. The Buddhist and Catholic parallels in belief and practice were key factors in the continuation of the underground Christians, who creatively redefined their beliefs within a Buddhist pictorial language.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZVirtuous stone : Medieval Llotjas of the Crown of Aragon
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/142150
Virtuous stone : Medieval Llotjas of the Crown of Aragon
Renteria, Soraya
Built during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Llotja of Barcelona and the Llotja of Valencia were multipurpose halls for merchants to meet and conduct wholesale trade. These Llotja served as a space where interconfessional relations continued to thrive amidst a society in which Christian homogeneity was becoming linked with moral and spiritual salvation. Both the city leaders and the church had a vested interest in the financial success of these cities as trade centers. Yet the Llotjas represented a political and moral problem for each city’s political and religious leaders. This thesis considers the construction and function of the Llotjas through Medieval Christian theological discourses on architectural allegory, aesthetics and materiality. By analyzing the relationship between civic architecture and the theological legitimization of the Barcelona’s and Valencia’s body politic, this thesis also contributes to the broader discussion on the relationship between medieval civic architecture and virtue.
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z