Date of Award
August 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Art
Committee Member
Valerie Zimany
Committee Member
Anderson Wrangle
Committee Member
Beth Lauritis
Abstract
In his book, The Poetics of Space, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard uses a phenomenological approach in which he explores and muses about objects such as the nest, the shell, and the corner. Through personal observation, his mode of examination is prolonged and generous to those things he observes. For him, those places he explores can be filled with our own thoughts and so, set them apart as spaces made anew. The inside of a shell becomes an entire house and a corner gives way to a whole room.
I create ceramic sculptures that capture an inner immensity and beauty found in the effects of clay and glaze. From architectonic to biomorphic in appearance, I build these sculptures as an archetypical form with the intention to disrupt what we think is familiar about them. I do this through physical, formal choices and an intuitive approach. My process of intuitive discovery through this body of work and presentation is to materialize a microcosm of enticing textures and nuanced openings for the viewer to confront. My aim through this work, that I have titled Spaces In-Between, is that we attune ourselves to the more nuanced places in our lives because in doing so, we re-sensitize ourselves to appreciate the world we inhabit.
Recommended Citation
Mays, Sara, "Spaces In-Between" (2020). All Theses. 3372.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3372