Date of Award
12-2017
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Art
Committee Member
Anderson Wrangle, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Beth Lauritis
Committee Member
Todd McDonald
Abstract
This series of work explores the fragmented nature of memory, investigates the dynamism of my grandma's kitchen, and subverts nostalgia typically associated with the South. Each image in the series represents a particular memory, set of memories, or fragment of memories from my childhood of planting, growing, and picking food with my grandma as well as preserving it and cooking it with her. The ordering and decision making of what fragments go in which image is imprecise. The imprecision is a reflection of how memory operates - fragmented, mutable, and fleeting. The markings on the pots, remnants of food processes, and used kitchen tools, are a metaphor for the fragmented memories from which the photographs are created and function as proof of a life lived. This world represented, this life, is dynamic and has a depth far beyond the quaint nostalgia associated with the South. The tension created by removing these simple, vernacular objects from their context in her home and re-presenting them on a large scale in a formal, flat, and abstract manner not only declares that this specific world is worthy of consideration, but it also forms a space in which viewers can engage with this place in a new way, beyond sentimentally and nostalgia.
Recommended Citation
Eckersley, Amber, "In The Kitchen" (2017). All Theses. 2800.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2800