ic o Boj Danil n losso y Ted C Forra n a i t s a Seb arrett Lisa G ook nH Steve k Ivy Chuc amen e Kou n i s o R c i Ledu Natal ew McGr Emily er emtn Abi S scott a Tap M’kin
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The 34th University of Houston School of Art Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition is made possible in part by the University of Houston’s Student Fees Advisory Comitee. University of Houston, School of Art 100 Fine Arts Building Houston, TX 77204-4019 ISBN: 000-00-000000-0 Designer: Circe Mendez
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Introduction Danilo Bojic Graphic Communication Ted Closson Painting Sebastian Forray Painting Lisa Garrett Graphic Communication Steven Hook Painting Chuck Ivy Interdisciplinary Practice and Emerging
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Rosine Kouamen Photography and Digital Media
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Natali Leduc Sculpture Emily McGrew Painting Abi Semtner Painting M’kina Tapscott Sculpture
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INTRODUCTION
To assess one’s formal education as an artist is to begin to map a context that embodies not just the individual, creative spirit, but also the community we create, which has the power to imbue artworks with meaning and status. This is often commuted through an audience, a thoughtful and responsive peer group that becomes simultaneously a safety net and an agitation. While it’s often easier and sometimes more pleasant to see only what you want to see, it’s crucial at other times to have things pointed out that you don’t really want to acknowledge. This is part of why artists return to graduate school: to rekindle the critical apparatus, and stimulate what can go dormant or numb during bouts of working day jobs, and most importantly, to find an audience.
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So what does learning look like in a Master of Fine Arts program? The richness of the experience is grounded in faceto-face human interaction. Neither face-to-phone, nor face-to-screen. Perhaps it is even less visual than textual, social, intellectual: a reinvigoration of the mind, a tempering of intuition, and somehow, the negotiation between the two spaces: deliberate, calculated creation, and making without over-thinking. Encouragement, friendship, space, time, and experimentation: all this is something that an art education offers. In deciding to become a professional artist, there are certain conditions one must overcome: parents, for one, who are often ambivalent at the possibility of such an uncertain career path. Then there are your friends in your former life, the people who work 9 to 5 for a corporation, or a small business, or offer financial, legal or medical services. Their lives suddenly stop looking like yours. In their everyday life, there are people to call when something goes wrong, there are handbooks and seminars, there is a desk with a phone on it,
there is the possibility of calling in sick. But as an artist, you are your own Human Resource: a department of one. It is a profound struggle to be an artist in America: there is very little public understanding of it as a professional trajectory. For instance, while the iconic doll Barbie eventually became more than just a pretty face, as she morphed into a wage earner, she became an astronaut, or a member of the Armed Services. She never became an artist. This is one of the many reasons why a handful of postwar artists, such as Picasso, Pollock, and Warhol, have been revered as cultural heroes: because they rejected societal norms and embraced their inner momentum. But this too is now an outmoded model. Contemporary artists must find a way to engage with the world, or risk being irrelevant. Artwork can function in a variety of arenas: as social practice, as political commentary, as economic commodity, what one makes is far from being just an object. And if it is just an object, then it must find
a way to be responsive to the rapidly changing social landscape we find ourselves in. The world is in flux, and contemporary artists should think of themselves as “first responders,” flexible and fluid enough to be aspirational, process-oriented, collaborative, and create spaces for the fundamental role culture plays in enriching everyday life. According to Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, Embarking artistic career aismore a little like a …art is aupon usefulan device to measure general consciousness of the state of global relationships today and to help us collectively think beyond them. In this sense, art is more than “the thing itself” of the artwork but a systemic form of imagining from out of the conditions at hand towards something that is not yet formed. This imagining might be connected to what has already been imagined and failed, but it begins from the ground around it...*
choose-your-own-adventure book: each decision leads to a range of options that, in turn, become puzzles and conquests, alleys and highways, windows and doors. You get lost, only to find yourself again, and the path is usually unmarked: a map of tantalizing possibilities and many directions. In the fall semester, I had the pleasure of working with the graduating class of 2012. They are equipping themselves for the formidable challenges ahead, making a space for themselves in Houston and elsewhere. It is important that they be encouraged to continue imagining toward whatever it is that has yet to take shape: defining the fuzzy contours, sharpening their criticality, and continuing to fine tune their own ambitions and ideas.
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Jenni Sorkin
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Charles Esche and Maria Hlavajova, “Former West: Introductory Notes,” www.formerwest.org. Accessed January 28, 2012.
THE ARTISTS
Bojic Bojic
Danilo
I explore perception and speed and the acceleration of constructed messages. My goal is to understand how communication at different speeds affects human cognition. Ultimately, my desire is to find new, creative and imaginative, ways to channel my research as I visualize 10
data through new media and explore interactivity between a viewer and an artifact. My concentration on perception, speed, and acceleration expands on design systems and esthetical experience through practical research in history, theory and philosophy. Through my work I want to raise the consciousness, sensitivity and conviction of my audience.
Perception Visualization: Ornamental 2010 (36” x 108” x 11”) Mix Media: Acrylic Sheets and Frost Vinyl. Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic
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Narrative Sequencing: Journey 2011 (3:00 min.) Media: QucikTime Movie Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic
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The Lorica, Chapter IV (Water), page 69 2010-Present (8.5� x 6� detail) Media: digital illustration
Closson
Ted Closson Comic books and graphic novels are intimate objects with a ready social dynamic, suitable for assembling architecture at once nostalgic and culturally elegiac that bridges mimetically between artist-writer and audience. Much of what popular narratives explore can be found exemplified in aspects of day to day culture, such as societal, moral and political perceptions. Comics and graphic novels, as established tools of entertainment in mainstream American culture, are well suited for disrupting or reinforcing majority perceptions through this specialized form of subversion. Narratives are a kind of social sculpture capable of shaping the perceptions of those who view or read them. They are capable, without being didactic or propagandistic, of grafting new ideas to extant ones in a way that alters the scope of apparent possibilities. Narratives provide a way of seeing- of presenting outside concepts and situations The Lorica, Chapter II (Chess), page 162 2010-Present (8.5� x 8� detail) Media: digital illustration Credit: Collection of Vera B. Bojic
to the mainstream, with solutions for the integration of new information into the collective consciousness.
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Forray
Sebastian Forray
I am interested in drawing as both a private, hermetic act of discovery, as well as one that connects me to the world outside the private realm of the studio. One of my current working methods begins with intuitive mark marking (right brain), automatic and as free of conscious symbolizing 14
as possible. This is the action of drawing devoted to the object of drawing—the conscious line Twombly speaks of—simultaneously a record and a product. Through reengagement with the other (left) half of the brain, I reorganize the information produced in order to find the tipping point between the two sides (conscious/unconscious), which is ultimately what I am interested in exploring. Outside the studio, my work is directed to collaboration and curatorial work. This takes a variety of forms, including converting my studio into an exhibition space (Bluffer Gallery), organizing the work of local and foreign artists in other spaces, and collaborative efforts through groups such as Sketch Klubb.
Untitled 2011 (7.125” x 10”) Media: Graphite on paper
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Collabo Sebastian Forray & Yeh Hsuan-Fu 2010 (11.625� x 8.25�) Media: Watercolor and ink on paper
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Community Quilt 2011 Media: Vinyl banner material, 3 mil. calendered adhesive vinyl, brass grommets, sewing thread.
Garrett
Lisa Garrett My work examines the visual grammar of the urban landscape, and in particular, the semiotic relationship between the structural form of environmental signage and its message. The methodologies I use are heavily influenced by my affinity for urban visual culture and vernacular design—a love that is deeply rooted in my suburban rearing and early professional career in the “Mom and Pop” sign industry. In conjunction with my explorations of signage, my practice focuses on the visualization of ephemeral processes—the tracings or by-products of human existence. Urban Decay 2011
Ongoing research will ultimately merge these two seemingly disparate investigations of culture: the semiotics of signage and the visualization of ephemeral process as I seek to map the urban landscape within the context of a community’s economic, political, and/or social constructs.
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Hook
Steven Hook
I make mixed-media collages, paintings and video on canvas. In the collages I include gouache, acrylic and paper using contradictory methodologies through layered brush strokes, painted text and scissor-cut paper. My aim is to confuse depth, playing with the tension of immediacy 18
of paint and slowness of paper collage. The product is my own visual language poetry. In oils on canvas and with graphite or charcoal on paper, I use various formalist methods, often layering renderings of figures over words and landscapes. With both the collages and drawings I remove and obscure most words and figures until comprehension of them becomes difficult; I want to obstruct the audience from seeing everything immediately.
Cat 2011 (11�x14�) Media: Graphite on paper
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Ideas 2011 (48”x48”) Media: Goauche on paper, acrylic on canvas
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IRMA: Infra-Red Musical Activity 2009-2010 (60�) Media: 3D rear-projection television, Microsoft Kinect, Mac Mini running Processing and Max/MSP Courtesy of the Texas Learning & Computation Center, Houston, TX
Ivy
Chuck Ivy I consider myself a research artist, developing rules, frameworks and systems whereby I investigate media and culture. Through a balance of algorithmic process and personal aesthetic, I synthesize video, generative photography, cut-up texts, sound collages and other New Media art often stemming from appropriated materials. My interest in these methods originates, in part, with the early tape-loop audio moirés of Steve Reich and the culture jamming collage work of the band Negativland. A Minute from Brazil Nº CX 2008 (22”x41”) Digital C-Print on metallic paper, mounted on aluminum Private Collection, Houston, TX
One of the themes often explored in my work is obstruction or interference with the normal perceived flow of time. I may compress scenes from a movie down into a single still frame by mathematically averaging them together, or stretch minutes of a song into hours so that any sense of rhythm or change is almost imperceptible. Either method becomes a means of exploration and discovery for me.
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Kouamen
Rosine Kouamen
My photographic practice is born of the desire to communicate my forged identity within the West African Diaspora. I illustrate personal and collective narratives that are compiled from my childhood to the present, which are meant to reflect the nostalgia of a vibrant culture through 22
my artwork. Narratives, whether true or imagined are an important and intrinsic part of how identity is formed. In other words, identity is a series of narratives sometimes shared by or with others, that aid in the creation of communities and help to create a short-hand for culture, through symbolism that people identify with like a flag, food, music, and even memories. As a result, I endeavor to capture the nostalgia of culture through my artwork. In this series, I attempt to capture the fluidity of culture and its lack of a constant.
Kris Lambi, Cameroon 2012 (15�x15�) Media: Inkject Print / Photography
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Yassine Alao, Gabon 2012 (15”x15”) Media: Inkject Print / Photography
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Schematic for Giant Multitron 2012 (5�x4�) Media: Graphite on Paper
Leduc
Natali Leduc I create objects and situations as solutions to real and imaginary problems, with a fondness for contraptions and puppet shows that involve fire and real animals. The contraptions romanticize the archetype of the amateur inventor, who works with rudimentary knowledge and avid curiosity. Mostly impractical, the contraptions allude to needs or desires pertaining to the imaginary realm, where humor and absurdity start to make sense, where they become pure joy. The puppets also rely on humor and absurdity; they blend in with reason to reach an odd “normality”. By using dead and live animals as puppets, I am aware of stretching the usual definition of puppet as an Schematic for Giant Multitron 2012 (6”x8”) Media: Graphite on Paper
object that is being animated, blurring the line between life and death. Using animals as puppets also questions the hierarchy of animals in a human-centric system and the projection of human qualities onto the animal realm.
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McGrew
Emily McGrew
My drawings and paintings are from photographs but just as importantly memory. It is the memory of the place that sustains my interest and that helps me define just exactly how I feel about the subject or situation I depict. I often make work about places I have traveled to. This is because the unfamiliar landscape is often cloaked with mystery to me. I have to orient myself, and am stripped of all preconceived notions. It is akin to starting with a blank 26
slate, and there is something exhilarating about that. I am equally compelled by the people in my life. I project on them new (but I feel related) identities; they become characters in my own, made-up play. This ambiguity sustains me; I want to leave some of it up for interpretation. I would like my paintings to do what I feel is normally so difficult: to communicate deeply, honestly, even, unflinchingly a view of a flawed, but salvageable world, and how our awareness of it shapes our existence.
In the Bush 2011 (8.5�x11�) Media: Etching on Rives BFK
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Carbon Sink 2012 (72” x 92” x 2”) Media: Oil on Canvas
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then bow dingbat 2011 (6�x4�) Media: Found book page, cotton thread
Semtner
Abi Semtner My work is an obsessive process of selecting and manipulating familiar and domestic materials. Colors that signify a personal memory are then color matched to paint, hand picked cotton, embroidery thread and vintage parchment paper are a few of the materials I use to create my mixed media pieces. The measurable process and the finished thing are equally important. I am interested in handwork, gathering, sorting, collecting and finding intrinsic historical objects. The idea that an object could contain a history intrigues me. Tenuous and vague memories take shape as I search for and use the right object and a personal mythology emerges. Whether She would always say “My Stars” 2011-2012 (5’ x 2’ x 4.25”) Media: Raw canvas, cotton thread
true or fabricated, those memories then foster future work. My work is rooted in turning personal events into a calming and meditative performance. The materials I carefully choose and obsessively use directly respond to my history and make each piece full of meaning.
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Tapscott
M’kina Tapscott
As an artist I critique conflicting views on AfricanAmerican life and existence; these include historical accounts, and media portrayals. In my work I have juxtaposed and contrasted themes of identity and identification. Many of the works I create utilize different 30
materials from found and repurposed objects, to memorabilia. These materials are then sculpted around a specific researched themes or concepts. Research takes the form of self-immersion, reading, community involvement, and activism. The subject matter of each body of work, the materials and form the work will take are determined at the conclusion of the research process. Sculpture, for me is a fluid ever-changing genre that allows exploration of various materials and methods.
Family 2007 (11” x 24” ) Media: hand-built raku with sound component
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Study in Texture 1 2009 (8.5” x 11”) Media: Collage on woven paper
This book was created in 2012 for the 34th University of Houston School of Art Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition. The typefaces used were Helvetica Neue Regular, Condensed Bold, Medium and UltraLight. It was printed on white paper in color ink. The cover of the book was printed in color on white paper stock. This is a limited edition book consisting of 500 copies.
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
SCHOOL OF ART