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SET

dc.contributor.authorLeech, Heidi, author
dc.contributor.authorLundberg, Thomas R., committee member
dc.contributor.authorBacheller-Stewart, Susan, committee member
dc.contributor.authorRutstein, Joel S., committee member
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-03T05:03:57Z
dc.date.available2007-01-03T05:03:57Z
dc.date.issued1997
dc.description.abstract"It was no longer merely important to be something [on television], you also had to appear to be something." -Phil Ross Boynton, Winning the Media Game. "You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching it makes you a better person." " .. .If you get too close to the screen, all you can see is a bunch of little dots. You don't see the big picture until you stand back. But when you do, everything comes into focus." -Suzanne Stone, in the film To Die For (1995). SET is an illusion. The viewer looks at a larger-than-life television set to see a scene containing a TV, a chair and other items: pictures on the wall, a quilt draped across the chair, a vase of flowers and a lamp on a table. Playing on the TV in this inner scene is a room, an iteration of a television scene, this one animated with a television set and a blinking eye. This initial enclosed view appears cramped and solitary, but not extraordinary. Looking closer-or watching longer-the viewer discovers that each item in SET is composed of televisions. Pictures of televisions, framed in televisions, hang on the wall. The flowers are televisions with screen-shaped petals and antenna leaves. The lamp rests on a TV posing as a table; its shade and base show television faces. The quilt shows television imagery on its squares. The chair is covered in eyeballs with television-screen-shaped pupils. This work began when, as a whimsical element to an art project, I screen-printed images of six well-known women from the entertainment industry onto t-shirts. Over the years acquaintances had told me I resembled these women in one way or another. Suddenly I became fascinated with the television set (on which I had seen these women's images) as a formal element; it was a compelling box full of reflections and symbolic mirrors. I began creating illustrations of televisions in unique situations. At the same time, I turned the mirrors on myself and became more aware of unanswered questions about my own identity. Since I am adopted, the origins of my appearance are a mystery. I have no visual history with which to inform my own image, and I believe I was subconsciously reaching to TV for resemblances, so I could experience the feeling of identification that others take for granted. I realized the illusory quality of image and appearance on television and how the illusion is perpetuated. This is the basis upon which the work is built. SET is a stage for the exploration of illusion, appearance and reflection. The eye is the subject. Within the animation, the TV faces the eye and becomes an eye of its own. Each flower and wall hanging are eyes. The empty chair draped with the quilt refers to the animated eye and becomes a representation of self in a situation of watching, searching and wondering.
dc.format.mediummasters theses
dc.identifier1997_Spring_Leech_Heidi.pdf
dc.identifierETDF1997700011ARTa
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10217/86863
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relationCatalog record number (MMS ID): 991002490699703361
dc.relationN7740.L43 1997
dc.relation.ispartof1980-1999
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.subject.lcshSymbolism in art
dc.titleSET
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplineArt
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

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