Date of Graduation

8-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art (MFA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Art

Advisor/Mentor

Richards, Kat

Committee Member

Turner, Aaron R.

Second Committee Member

Edwards, Vincent A.

Third Committee Member

Taoka, Loring

Keywords

Anti-Trans legislation; Art; Gender; Installation art; LGBTQIA+; Photography

Abstract

Ways to Endure is an installation of photographic-based inquiry through light, steel, emulsion, glass and, healing welted skins. Topographic satellite imagery of flood-prone peaks and valleys within my rural home county are abstracted by a Google Earth glitch. Acupuncture needles are a reminder of sorrow and relief and an indicator of boundary and location. The Fresnel lens has a historical responsibility as a beacon, a tool of survival and navigation, originally used to concentrate and project light in lighthouses, and fire starters in survival kits. The Fresnels are fixed in front of intimate portraits to magnify and abstract. This installation of lens and image works to subvert the function and gaze of a traditional photographic lens, the making and presentation of a photograph, and to implicate the viewer within an installation. It offers safety in abstraction.

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