Honors Studio Thesis Proposal

I struggle to talk–fluidly, concisely, in a way that feels worthy of the other person in the conversation, I mumble and am asked to repeat myself or speak up, or oppositely, I am asked to be softer. Throughout my life, I constantly tell myself to reflect later instead of focusing on the moment. Since I was around eight years old, I’ve kept a journal. My journals are filled with thoughts that I cannot let go of– some of it is complex, some of it is teenage garb, and a lot is a simple sonder for life and how I have experienced it. So why have I trained myself to recall memory if it just stays between myself and I, in the pages? What I wish to accomplish with my thesis is a satisfaction that I’ve pulled everything out of myself, that if I can’t say it in words, I can show it. I will finally read it all aloud, through the silly and the ridiculous and the exaggerated. 

The project I wish to bring to life as part of my thesis in terms of space and material is convergent to the fact that I would like to be able to not confine myself to a frame or piece of paper. While I want to incorporate 2-d aspects into my thesis, I was particularly inspired by the choice of words for Emma Jansen’s installation as a sanatorium, and I think my thesis could take some inspiration from that. I am drawn to a more enclosed space such as the area before the long hallway, after the supply closet in Swig for its size but I am flexible with other spaces as well. I would also like to discuss the possibility of finding a bunch of older TV sets that would be able to broadcast video and that I could stack or sprinkle throughout the space I am allotted (see sketch). I am also considering repurposing some of my journals in pieces, and I may have them on display in my installation, maybe also scattered throughout, or stacked. I want to use these journals as tools for key parts of my thesis– so I can specifically explore memory in different mediums. I have saved so many snippets of writing (angry sticky note exchanges with my sister, cards, and so many lists) and I would like to find ways to use these in my thesis in a way that complements what I already make. For one of my planned pieces I want to interview myself, maybe bringing back aspects of Walter, my alter ego, and directly quote my journal. 

I want my entire thesis to be an installation of the complexities of consciousness and what we leave behind, which is up to us.  

Below: response to brainstorming questions in process book.

Here are two examples of videos I might use that I already have, besides the ones I wish to create: 

Chappaquiddick, Martha’s Vinyard (2011) https://youtu.be/4N4AFYK_lUA

Grandparents (2009?): https://youtu.be/B-ytPMxKbys

Alter Ego: https://youtu.be/4Xjj8cVAnUY

Playlist: honors thesis memory and audio component

This playlist is a musical component that either is a point of inspiration or may be in my installation as an audio component in relation to memory. For example, “The Girl With The Flaxen Hair” is listed as it is the piece that my sister Clara used to practice over and over on the harp  I have (exact recording to be sourced ASAP), and Flatsound’s entire ambiance album is also a possibility for a piece of my audio component in the installation. The playlist will continue to grow as I make pieces. 

Previous Pieces As Inspiration: 

Although I went a different direction for my performance art, the brainstorming I did for the piece is reminiscent of my relationship to journaling and this is something that I would like to explore and additionally, use my performance piece in my thesis somehow, either with video or the physical piece I made. Below is the initial sketch for my performance art piece. 

AP Studio Piece: memories i try to reach  – synthesizes memory as an artifact. Each page of the zine spread is symbolic of an object tied to a memory from throughout my life–ranging from early childhood to the time I made the piece.  This is an early exploration of memory and a direct inspiration for my thesis.

Sketch: Structure of how I would utilize space for my thesis.

Wall component brainstorming.

ARTISTS 

Patti Smith 

“The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. It's the artist's responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation.”

― Patti Smith, Just Kids

Patti Smith, represented by Robert Miller Gallery since 1978, began as a visual artist and has been making drawings and taking photographs since the late 1960s. In recent years, her practice has expanded to include installation. She was most recently the subject of Camera Solo, a survey of her photographs organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (2011), which travelled to Detroit Institute of Arts (2012) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (2013). In 2008, Smith was the subject of Patti Smith Land 250 at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporaine, Paris, and Written Portrait - Patti Smith at Artium Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith, a three hundred-work retrospective, was organized by The Andy Warhol Museum in 2002 and traveled to numerous venues including the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Museum Boijsman Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Her work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Eki, Kyoto; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Triennale di Milano, Milan; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels and the Pompidou Center in Paris. 

Just Kids, a memoir of Smith's remarkable relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe during the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies, won her the 2010 National Book Award in the nonfiction category. Her 1975 album Horses, established her as one of most original and important musical artists of her generation and was followed by ten releases, including Radio Ethiopia; Easter; Dream of Life; Gone Again, Trampin', and Banga, her latest. She continues to perform throughout the world and in 2007 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July of 2005, she was presented with the prestigious insignia of Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters, an esteemed French cultural honor. In May 2011, Smith won the Polar Music Prize, Sweden's most prestigious music award.

Grateful - Patti Smith (2000)

Ours is just another skin

Simply slips away

You can rise above it

It will shed easily

It all will come out fine

I've learned it line by line

One common wire

One silver thread

All that you desire

Rolls on ahead

Like a ship in a bottle

Held up to the sun

Sails ain't going nowhere

You can count every one

Until it crashes unto the earth

Simply slips away

You can hide in the open

Or just disappear

It all will come out fine

I've learned it line by line

One common wire

One silver thread

All that you desire

Rolls on ahead

Ours is just a craving

And a twist of the wrist

Will undo the stopper

With abrupt tenderness

Die little sparrow

And awake singing

It all will come out fine

I've learned it line by line

One common wire

One silver thread

All that you desire

Rolls on ahead

Tillie Walden  

Tillie Walden is an American cartoonist and illustrator.

Born in 1996 in San Diego, California, Walden graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, where she is currently a professor.

Walden started publishing short comics when she was just a teenager. Her first long-form graphic novel The End of Summer was published by the British publisher Avery Hill in 2015. Her second book I Love This Part came out only a few months later, winning the 2016 Ignatz Award for promising new talent. Later Walden received the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work for her memoir Spinning (2017). Among her other works are A City Inside (2016), On a Sunbeam (2018), Are You Listening? (2020), Alone in Space (2021) and the series Clementine.– Use of color, linework, and storytelling and the graphic novel “On A Sunbeam” has been a favorite of mine since I first read it in middle school .

Keith Haring 

Keith Haring was a popular artist and activist who was part of the legendary New York art scene during the 1980s. While he is known for his colourful works and his iconic motifs such as the radiant baby and the barking dog, much of his work responded to contemporary social and political events. This included the battle to end Apartheid, the AIDS epidemic and drug abuse. As an openly gay artist Haring also chose to represent the hardships of the LGBTQ community in his work, including gay rights. Inspired by graffiti artists, he began drawing in New York’s subway stations; filling empty poster spaces with chalk drawings which people would walk past every day. His aim was to make art accessible to everyone and these works allowed him to interact with a diverse audience.

Political and intentional, Haring’s art entices me for its history and for the act of which Haring did most of his work: illegally drawing in the New York City subway with his art, a performance art piece in itself. The most interesting thing about Haring is that everyone wears t-shirts with his art, but don’t know anything about why he did what he did.