Acts of emergence
Date
2015
Authors
LaBarre, Sarah E., author
Lundberg, Thomas, advisor
Harrow, Del, committee member
Kneller, Jane, committee member
Ryan, Ajean, committee member
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Abstract
In my thesis installation Acts of Emergence, impressions of memory and past experiences emerge from canvas through layers of stain and stitch. Each piece suggests a fragment of memory--real and imagined. Several dozen fragmented units represent a mapping of memory through space, as if each component manifests pieces of a moment in time, flowing across the wall. The format of this piece presents a kind of disjointed timeline that contains partial records of an experience. The work as a whole is scattered across and floating away from the wall, creating a fragmented composition made up of bits of densely stitched canvas. Viewed more closely, each fragment itself becomes a composition. Stains suggest the presence of memories left behind. Each piece in this panorama holds a moment; together the units present a kind of suspended place or moment in time. These fragments appear to travel across the wall, emerging from my memory and stained with references to a history, not unlike paintings made by the Mexica people of Pre-Hispanic Mexico, who conceived time and space as intrinsically linked. I draw much inspiration from the human body's capacity to convey many emotions. The dancing figures in my work are anonymous: each with their own identity, yet not seen as anyone in particular. They are frozen in specific moments, offering a view of that moment as well. Together, suspended figures plot multiple moments within this spreading map of memory.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
embroidery
machine embroidery
memory
fibers
dance
mapping