Subject to change

WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Kylie B. Price (Creator)
Institution
Western Carolina University (WCU )
Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
Advisor
Morgan Kennedy

Abstract: My work invites the viewer to experience the moment where the unfamiliar becomes familiar and when the expected becomes unexpected. I am curious about the way that our personal experiences affect how we process information and interact within a constructed environment. Patterns of recurring coincidences and the moment when information aligns are themes that I am continuously pondering. Exploring material, sensory, and spatial relationships in the studio, I contemplate the connections that develop between them. My studio practice begins by finding common threads between different pieces of information. The information used in my work comes from conversations, dreams, reading, and movies to name a few. I create a taxonomy of this information, materials, and visuals. I then transfer this list of information and materials onto paper and organize it into categories. The resulting subject matter becomes the basis of a large-scale drawing, which acts as a second opportunity to edit my ideas and recognize things spatially. Then I create the final work in the form of a sculpture or an installation. Reorganizing the information into a sculptural form allows me to extend into space the concepts taken from my lists. The final step in the process is rationalizing the surroundings by addressing the space around the work and its relationship to the drawings, sculpture, and installation. When selecting materials, I formally respond to color and gravitate towards recognizable materials that have a preexisting identity and intended use that is commonly understood. I aim to challenge that identity by altering the materials and placing them in unfamiliar surroundings that defy their purpose. Doing so allows the viewer to gain a perspective foothold in the work and encourages questioning and exploration of the uncanny. In this thesis, I will compare my process of creating personal taxonomies and the way that I process information to that of other thinkers and artists that I am conceptually and aesthetically align with. I will also consider how my sculptures and installations relate to the concept of the Surrealist object and Josef Albers's ideas of perception used in his classroom matière exercises. Surrealist objects inform my work because they challenge the vocabulary surrounding an object to broaden the scope of associations that the viewer makes with it. I share the goal of the surrealists in that these associations allow the viewers' minds to settle in the zone between the familiar and unfamiliar and creates space for the subconscious mind and the imagination. Josef Albers's matière exercises are based on the idea that a material’s visual language can change depending on its context. With this philosophy in mind, I am expanding this idea past a classroom exercise, and am utilizing this concept to make finished work.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2020
Keywords
Drawing, Everyday materials, Installation art, Painting, Sculpture
Subjects
Drawing
Installations (Art)
Painting
Sculpture

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