Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Fine Arts

Program

Visual Arts

Supervisor

Mahon, Patrick

Abstract

This MFA project explores identity, mapping, and embroidery as broadly considered regarding ideas of place and landscape. Concepts such as travel, the familiar, the temporary, the known, and the unknown are motivating notions that I examine through academic study alongside techniques of hand embroidery. Throughout my MFA project, a series of material and technical choices were crucial to my reflecting on ideas of resemblance, mapping, migration, and archiving in order to further understand my identity.

A series of texts on resemblance, archiving, and mapping by Michel Foucault, Arjun Appadurai, and Tom Vanderbilt, along with references to the art practices and thought processes of artists Mrinalini Mukherjee, GhadaAmer, Anne Wilson, and Britta Marakatt-Labba’s are shown to be vital in helping to articulate my thematic and materialistic interests.

The thesis can be considered further both in relation to the concept of mapping and to hand embroidery in light of broader experiences of encounters with “place.” I anticipate the potential of this work to relate to other disciplinary contexts, including in the Sciences.

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