Term of Award
Fall 2008
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Art
Committee Chair
Jessica Hines
Committee Member 1
Julie McGuire
Committee Member 2
Leigh Thomson
Abstract
The challenge of the human condition is to bear the loss that comes with every second, moving forward, breathing without thinking; moving forward, through moments that pass so uneventfully that we will not recall them, along with moments that we experience so profoundly that we begin to use them as landmarks in our personal histories. My view of time is of something that surrounds me and becomes a part of my identity. Yet, as I contemplate what it means to BE, I must face the constancy with which that being also changes. Regardless of the things that I remember, or that I forget, gravity perpetuates the movement of time. Thus, gravity becomes our greatest burden. Through my writing and research, I explore the dual nature of being, and the transient natures of both the intellectual and physical self. In my thesis exhibition, The Lightness of Being and The Burden of Gravity, I employed the medium of video installation in order to provide a space that evoked both the ephemeral and the physical sense of being. In my support paper, I discuss this exhibition in depth, as well as my conceptual connections to literary and artistic influences, such as the writings of Milan Kundera and Jorge Luis Borges, and the work of artists Masao Yamamoto, James Turrell, and Ann Hamilton.
Recommended Citation
Mixon, Emily Don, "Lightness of Being and the Burden of Gravity" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 138.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/138
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
