ND MFA 2014 by Are Not Books & the Nonnus Studio

ND MFA University of Notre Dame Department of Art, Art History & Design Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition

2014

2014 MFA Thesis Exhibition University of Notre Dame

Department of Art, Art History & Design

ND MFA

2014 Thesis Exhibition

Contents

Mary Fashbaugh Photography 17

Erin Hinz Painting & Drawing 25

Kevin Melchiorri Industrial Design 33

Jake Ollinger Ceramics 45

Heather Parrish Printmaking 57

Katelyn Seprish Sculpture 67

Matt Smith Graphic Design 74

Credits & Figures

Thesis Exhibition

Mary Fashbaugh Photography

Thesis Exhibition

Mary Fashbaugh

Vulnerability inVisibility

Each of the three pieces (video, photographs, and life cast) in my thesis exhibition challenge the viewer’s sense of sight; from our expectations of photographic portraiture and replica to the denial of knowledge the hands receive in the video, asking the viewer to contemplate the touch alone. This visual examination of the simultaneous comfort and vulnerability of being touched, reveals a transitivity between the perceiver and the perceived as tactual information is translated both physically and emotionally.

his work explores expectations and limitations of the senses in regard to human interaction. As Western culture grows more and more touchaverse, we rely on visual representation to navigate a majority of our communication. This loss of a more physical engagement with others and the world around us provokes me to explore personal boundaries, to question the integrity of sight, and to alter the viewer’s relationship and role in art from visual observer to visual participant.

Through creating synesthetic viewing experiences, I aim to show the complexity of the internal world of sight versus the external world of touch and the disparity in the level of engagement and intimacy between them.

Humans have a primal longing to connect and share intimacy, which can induce a feeling of vulnerability. Therefore, we also have a conflicting desire to remain disconnected, anonymous, and un-touched. Touch is the sense most linked to emotion and the most concrete sense for our understanding of external reality. I challenge the notion of “to see is to know” by asking an individual who is blind to describe the physical identity of several sighted persons, lessening their vulnerability by giving them a sense of invisibility.

Thesis Exhibition

Mary Fashbaugh

Thesis Exhibition

Mary Fashbaugh

Thesis Exhibition

Mary Fashbaugh

Erin Hinz Painting & Drawing

Thesis Exhibition

Erin Hinz

Because of the enduring art historical tradition in painting of female objectification, I attempt to take back the female form and represent it under the guise of classical painting, only this time full of agency and self-actualization. These aesthetic choices are intended to serve as an entry point that in turn subverts the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectations of gender in painting. In an effort to further this uncanny representation of the female body I depict incomplete body parts so that rather than a complete body to be gazed upon, the form exists in fragments sometimes merged into floating forms and other times developing out of the squishy atmosphere. While I argue that the body is never free from objectification, the forms in my paintings are celebrated through a delighted female gaze. Rather than depicting a body to be exploited, I work strenuously to create images that cause the viewer to identify with the represented bodies. By doing this I endeavor to naturalize female eroticism so that it becomes politically legitimate. After all every sexuality is queer to every other sexuality.

hrough my work I wish to invite the viewer to re-imagine the uses of our bodies and our desires. The paintings are joyful acts of disobedience about what it means to be a female right here, right now. I seek to give form to these notions by using certain visual strategies that allude to the internal realm of self-pleasure, which in terms of American female sexuality might be the most feared and taboo subject. My work focuses on what a sense of bodily entitlement might look like. I work to depict a realm of sexual subjectivity that is far removed from the disparate notions of female sexuality, such as the ostensibly antiquated virgin/whore dichotomy, yet acknowledges the social forces that position the female body as an erotic object. Rather than adhering to either contradictory model, I see my own sexuality as a web of conflicting desires, proclivities and rebellions. Instead of attempting to portray a collective experience of multiple kinds of bodies, I focus on a singular experience in an effort to offer a more in-depth, richer description of female bodily enjoyment. I work to depict a realm of sexual subjectivity and sexual safety, while simultaneously acknowledging the complex plight of women, as a social category, in terms of their sexuality. Within this messy nest of conflicting impulses and criticisms, I see the body not as something to be resolved or contained, but rather a continuance, a transformative, morphing site.

Thesis Exhibition

Erin Hinz

Thesis Exhibition

Erin Hinz

Kevin Melchiorri Industrial Design

Thesis Exhibition

Kevin Melchiorri

The Product We are developing an ecosystem to enhance the user experience on their adventures. Our ecosystem consists of a wearable, a mobile app, and a user website. Each of these components has its place in the user’s journey. Before the activity begins, the user can use the website to plan his own activities, and the app and device provide information about his tribe’s whereabouts/activities. During the activity, the user will be able to view his tribe’s location and keep connected with his tribe. After the activity, the user will be able to view his tribe’s location and keep connected with his tribe’s whereabouts/activities. During the activity, the user will be able to view his tribe’s activities. After the activity, the user will be able to assess, analyze, recap, review, and share his journey with others.

ribe is an ecosystem for action sports enthusiasts that goes beyond performance metrics. Through the combination of a wearable activity monitor, a mobile app, and a user website. Tribe enables its users to stay connected to their circle of friends (or ‘tribe’) wherever their adventure with unmatched richness. Our team consists of entrepreneurs with a diverse and complementary skillset. In our team of eight, we have knowledge of mechanical and software engineering, graphic and industrial design, marketing, and business management. Most importantly, we are all passionate about outdoor sports. We are skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers, surfers, fishermen, hikers, campers, swimmers, runners, and rock climbers. Given our roots in adventure and action sports, we set out to design and create a revolutionary product which enhances the experience. We recognize that our adventures and journeys have been magnificent, and we are driven by our desire to relive and share those moments in a manner reflective of their grandeur. In forming Tribe, we intend to remain true to this vision while balancing the strategic business needs of the company. Profitable returns will allow us to run a business for which we share a common passion.

Thesis Exhibition

Kevin Melchiorri

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger Ceramics

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger

Disthrashterpiece (Atom Boy, Savior of the Popocalypse)

POPOCALYPSE! POPOCALYPSE NOW! (x4)

n the before time, the people had become complacent and lackadaisical. Lacking imagination, they accepted the “latest and greatest” tech fantasy without a thought. It was into this receptive atmosphere that I, RA, Sun God Supreme, sent his chosen son, i Job, to bring about their salvation (ruination). i Job spread his word through his devices, lecherous technology that slowly consumed the personality of the users, turning them into portals to another dimension, a dimension of impossible feats that this mortal coil couldn’t begin to comprehend. As time passed there was enough noob nrg to open the portal, and with a mighty explosion the Popocalypse was upon us.

Right now It’s time to charge our lazers (shoop do whoop), Lulz Energy cells recharged, The battle isn’t over, It was snack time, The pwnage will continue, forever The internet trollz crawled back under their bridge, The meme giantz can’t has cheezburger cuz I punched in their teeth, The snooki-booboos are six feet under the Butter Shores, Now all that’s left are all these noobz, Man they gum up the works

YEEEEA A A A A A AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! (intro yell)

A desolate landscape, a blasted world, torn to pieces as Popocalypse unfurls, too brightly lit for any mortal to see, faces replaced with blank screens,

noobz innumerable, they must be freed, they mosh to impending doom as they face me, Atom Boy flies into the melee, a horde of noobz to pwn, none can withstand him, this S.O.B. ownz

ATOM BOY, HE’LL SAVE EVERY ONE OF US!

ATOM BOY, SAVIOR OF THE POPOCALYPSE!

Weapons galore, armored to the max, stacks on stacks of weapon racks, the only thing Atom Boy lacks is a battle axe, Atom Boy attacks while eating badass snacks ATOM BOY, HE’LL SAVE EVERY ONE OF US! ATOM BOY, SAVIOR OF THE POPOCALYPSE!

A million battles over, a million more to go, our hero can never die Eternal battle forever, it’s time for our hero to rise (x2) Alright, yea, LOOKOUT!

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger

Thesis Exhibition

Jake Ollinger

Heather Parrish Printmaking

Thesis Exhibition

Heather Parrish

“The world is wholly inside, and I am wholly outside myself.”1 —Maurice Merleau-Ponty

he nature of inhabitation, what it means to be embodied and how this embodiment exists in relation to the world, is the interest that fuels my work. Through built environments and video projection I investigate the complex way we experience inhabitation. I focus on how we conceive and construct the boundary between interior and exterior (both physically and psychologically), and how we negotiate that construction to establish a sense of belonging.

Because we inhabit time as well as space, the constant flow of change occurring on the threshold between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ cause tension and necessitates an on-going effort toward selflocation—an effort I refer to as homing. Within the idea of homing are notions of navigation and return, an emphasis on a process rather than a destination, as well as the emotional weight contained in the desire for home. The materials I use reference veils, skins, layers, and screens, all of which pertain to access and containment. Light and video imbue the work with ephemerality and time, a metaphorical reference to our embodied consciousness. The tone is often quiet, evoking simultaneous senses of space and compression, and alternating between serenity and anxiety.

The idea of inhabitation implies container and contained, an interior and exterior. Drawing on my own experience, along with concepts from phenomenology and cognitive science, I propose that the inhabitant-environment relationship is reciprocally creative, porous, and ultimately inextricable one from the other. Perception and understanding arise from the particularities of our bodily constructs and are fully integrated with our emotional selves and our imagination, challenging the dualistic division between ‘mind’ and ‘matter’. It is just such divisions that I seek to complicate.2

By creating work that heightens awareness, engenders an increased sensitivity to self and environment, and engages our whole-body perceptual capabilities, I hope to increase a sense of conscious investment in this ongoing process of homing. Notes 1.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, 407.

2. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999, 4.

Thesis Exhibition

Heather Parrish

Thesis Exhibition

Heather Parrish

Thesis Exhibition

Heather Parrish

Thesis Exhibition

Katelyn Seprish Sculpture

Thesis Exhibition

Katelyn Seprish

reproductive system and psychoanalytical work pertaining to the mental health and state of the female as they pertain to feminist theory and art. I rely on feminist theory and discourse, the work of other female artists wrestling with the beast of feminism, as well as research on historical and current modes of biology and psychology. Much of the visual language I develop in my work derives from this research collectively.

he arousal and experience of pleasure is enjoyable, desired and actively pursued. But what about pleasure sought or realized through an encounter with the unexpected, the disgusting, or the grotesque? My work is fueled by this question and the many which arise from it. The lists of what generates pleasure and why are as numerous and vast (albeit unique) as those who seek it. One traditional elicitor of pleasure is beauty, but this notion is problematic because there are innumerable manifestations as to what exactly it means; simply put, what is considered beautiful varies greatly between historical periods and different cultures.

The undulating vessels I create do not in themselves elicit pure repulsion, but rather they provide the housing. They represent an origin for all that oozes, gushes and seeps. The breaking down of boundaries is explicit in the rendering of these objects. The vessels have been ruptured, torn open in places to reveal their interiority. Each opening is itself an orifice, the interface between two bodies, and resembling mutated vaginal forms. The exposure of mucous membrane, tissue walls and globules which are tethered to sinewlike sacks deconstruct the ‘skin’, or screen, which is charged with keeping them in place, at bay from the outside world, our world.

Through my research I have found that beauty is often identified as a causation of sensuality, appeal, even comfort; but as beauty is indeed always firmly rooted in the eye of the beholder, I rely on symptoms of beauty which pan cross-cultural and historical sects. To examine the appeal of beauty alone through my work would be to alienate and demean it-to suffocate it from the very notions which define it, and so I examine its opposite, disgust, in tandem as to provide an all encompassing investigation of the dichotomous, symbiotic relationship they maintain.

This type of visual language begs the questions of what is subject and what is object, what defines ‘us’ from ‘it’ and where precisely the walls of segregation are erected, eroded or in some cases, absent. The summation of my quest is eloquently stated by Carolyn Korsmeyer: “The complexity of aversive emotions bound up with artistic beauty creates a zone where horrid, beautiful, sublime and sublate can be difficult to distinguish. But

The female body is the ultimate host; of taboos, sensuality, revolt; it has the astounding ability to conjure repulsion and desire simultaneously. Disgust and desire maintain a provocative relationship in regards to the female body; the numerous dichotomies which fester within this relationship drive my artistic output. Most relevant to my work is the examination of the male and female

that is why some beauty is truly terrible.”

Thesis Exhibition

Katelyn Seprish

Thesis Exhibition

Katelyn Seprish

Thesis Exhibition

Katelyn Seprish

Matt Smith Graphic Design

Thesis Exhibition

Publishing As the Critical Practice of Graphic Design

PUBLISHING AS THE CRITICAL PR ACTICE OF GR APHIC

•

An Is Not Thesis Projectt

DESIGN ... An Is Not Book

Matt Smith

ing at the time. Our method is something like a recuperation of the Situationist technique of dérive, “operating within the archive, allowing the discovery of hidden ambiences.”1 Each book and edition simply grows out of conversations the authors, editors, friends, and associates happen to be having.2

he Are Not Books & Publications project is a functioning publisher of print and electronic books. As such, Are Not Books operates as an examination, and an example, of what has been called “micro-publishing.” The publishing taken up by such critical, small-scale ventures is entirely controlled by the designer, along with a small group of collaborators. Writing, editing, design, production, and distribution roles are restricted so as to be minimally influenced by outside concerns. As a result, the form and content of each publication can be critically and reflexively about the practice of graphic design and publishing.

Production Method The Are Not Books & Publications project’s printed books are produced like websites. Printon-demand technology allows each copy to be produced as an independent edition. Editorial changes can, and often are, made between each printing. Technological developments are embraced, while being utilized in a slowed-down fashion.3 The resulting hybrid, print-and-digital artifacts look final, complete, and total, while remaining partial, contingent, provisional, and mutable. Graphic designer Will Holder’s practice has been described in a similar way:

Catalog To date, Are Not Books has published twelve books (fifteen volumes). Titles include The Tree of the World; Saints and Guides; A Distant Ecclesiology; Protestant Erotics; Wisdom, Like Style, Is; Rust City Renovation; The Is Not Baseball Book; Johann Arndt (Four Volumes); W. B. Yeats: Selections; Publishing as the Critical Practice of Graphic Design; A Useless Guide to Book Design; and Notes On Design Education. All Are Not publications are available to read online. They can also be purchased as print-ondemand paperbacks at the cost of printing—without a publishers markup. To read or print any of these titles, please visit: arenotbooks.com.

Will Holder is a British typographer who edits and publishes. The work, always grasped by enjoyment, genuinely being worked out, and yet, the proper form seems never (humorously, nicely) totally arrived at. Increasingly, each publication by Holder seems to be edited with the knowledge of some future edition (like how one edits previous pages after completing the final pages, then edits the final pages

Publishing Strategy The Are Not Books & Publications editorial strategy can be described as wandering, flaneurlike; addressing any idea that might be interest-

again, then the previous pages again, etc.), as if Holder’s work were a single thing that is being released in burps.4

Notes 1.

3. Compare to Triple Canopy’s stated intention to

McKenzie Wark, 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International. New York: Buell Center/FO-

“slow down the internet,” in Triple Canopy, Inc.

RuM Project, Columbia University, and Princeton

Invalid Format: An Anthology of Triple Canopy. New

Architectural Press, 2008, pp. 15–20.

York: Canopy Canopy Canopy, Inc, 2011; and Triple Canopy, “The Binder and the Server.” Art

2. Mai Abu ElDahab quotes Stuart Bailey as describ-

Journal Volume 70, Number 4 (Winter 2011), pp.

ing the editorial process of Dot Dot Dot this way

40–57.

in From Berkeley to Berkeley: Objectif Exhibitions

4. source: yucontemporary.org/holder

2008–2010. Berlin: Sternberg, 2011, p. 5.

Thesis Exhibition

Exhibition as Publishing The original books, pamphlets, and other publications on display have all been written, edited, and designed by Are Not Books & Publications. Exhibiting these publications can be understood to constitute an instance of “publishing”—we are making public the formal, linguistic, and other artistic content of the printed material and installation. The term publication refers, in this case, to both an individual copy of the printed material on display, and the overall exhibition.

Marketing Strategy Our method for taking each publication “to market” follows very closely a strategy described by curator and critic Anthony Huberman: “trust in the self-selecting process whereby those who are interested in what [you] do will find their way to [you] and get in touch.”5 We only care, in other words, about those who care. Our goal is to facilitate cultural transactions that are not based on competition, or the accumulation of capital. We are interested, instead, in a gift economy made up of sympathies; of “friends who care.”6 This will necessarily involve smaller groups of people, as Huberman puts it, and “if that sounds apolitical or timid, it isn’t.” Huberman quotes critic and curator Jan Vorwoert on this topic: “a culture governed by the economic imperative makes good manners the closest you might get to civil disobedience.”7

Encountering books displayed in an exhibition format—whether in a museum or a trade show— opens up the meaning of publishing, or publication, to include a participatory, performative element not always found, or explicitly intended, in more commercial instantiations of publishing activities. Notes, continued 5.

Huberman, Anthony. “How to Behave Better.” Bulletins of the Serving Library, New York: The Serving Library, 2009, p. 7.

Compare to Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Norton, 1990 (1967); and Hyde, Lewis. The Gift. New York: Vintage Books, 2009.

Huberman, “How to Behave Better,” p. 7.

Matt Smith

Thesis Exhibition

Are Not Notes A Useless Guide to Book Design

A Useless Guide to Book Design Are Not Notes

Matt Smith

Credits & Figures

Front Matter

Pages 36–37: Atom Boy with B.H.J., photo by James

Cover and page 1: The Rochdale Rasper (Late the Bir-

Bellucci.

mingham Pet), by Harry Furniss, from Punch, or the

Page 38: CNC process for Hammernaut.

London Charivari, Volume 93, December 10, 1887.

Page 39: M.P.B.F.G. 5000 (Supercharged-Minigun Pistol

Page 2: Billie Burke as Gloria Stafford; still from the

with Lightsaber Ammo) redesign poster.

lost film Gloria’s Romance (1916), directed by Colin

Page 39: Process photo, right shoulder pad.

Campbell and Walter Edwin. Library of Congress,

Page 40: Atom Boy with Raised Fist documentation por-

Prints and Photographs division, Washington,

trait by James Bellucci.

D.C. 20540.

Page 41: Atom Boy with Lightsaber Belt documentation

Page 4: Heavyweight boxer Jess Willard “The Pot-

portrait by James Bellucci.

tawatomie Giant” (1881–1968), from the George

Page 42: Atom Boy Front View, documentation portrait

Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress

by James Bellucci.

Prints and Photographs Division.

Portrait Photos

Pages 6, 15: Artist portraits by Allison Evans

projection, 8 x 9 x 28 feet, 2013.

Pages 16, 23–24, 31–32, 43–44, 55–56, 65–66, 73: all artist

Pages 50–51, and 53 (bottom): Lucem Lenticulam, woven

and designer portraits by Mary Fashbaugh.

waxed paper, skylight, 9 x 8 x 30 feet, 2013. Pages 52 and 53 (top): Homing, woven waxed paper,

Mary Fashbaugh

tarlatan, video projection, 11 x 9 x 20 feet.

Pages 8–13: Archival pigment prints, glass domes,

Page 54 (bottom): Cradle (Nocturne), woven waxed

40 x 24 inches, 2014.

paper, video projection, 28 x 19 feet.

Pages 8, 15: Plaster life cast with audio, 2014.

Page 14: Hair with Braille, Archival pigment print, pearl adhesives, 40 x 27 inches, 2013.

Katelyn Seprish

Page 58: Ruptured Order, number 3, ceramic, wax, hair, pigment, 30 x 8 x 10 inches, 2014.

Erin Hinz

Page 60: Ruptured Order, number 2, ceramic, wax, hair,

Page 18: Not Everyone Gets to be a Girl, oil on canvas,

pigment, 40 x 32 x 22 inches, 2014.

30 x 24 inches, 2014; Beyond Spoiled, oil on canvas,

Page 61: Ruptured Order, number 2 detail, ceramic, wax,

18 x 14 inches, 2014.

hair, pigment, 40 x 32 x 22 inches, 2014.

Page 20: Fruition, mixed media on canvas, 36 x 36

Page 62: Ruptured Order, number 3 detail, ceramic, wax,

inches, 2013.

hair, pigment, 30 x 8 x 10 inches, 2014.

Page 21: I Entered Myself, mixed media on panel, 16 x 16

Page 63: Ruptured Order, number 4, ceramic, wax, hair,

inches, 2013.

pigment, 32 x 33 x 20 inches, 2014.

Page 22: Selfie, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches, 2014.

Heather Parrish

Pages 46, 48–49: Cradle, woven waxed paper, video

Page 63: Ruptured Order, number 5, ceramic, wax, hair, pigment, 28 x 41 x 27 inches, 2014.

Jake Ollinger

Page 64: Ruptured Order, number 1, ceramic, wax, hair,

Page 34: Hammernaut Tenderizer 5000 (Rocket-Powered

pigment, 52 x 41 x 26 inches, 2014.

Hammer, in process), 40 x 20 inches. Page 35: Lyrics, Disthrashterpiece (Atom Boy, Savior of the

Popocalypse), written by Lightknife (Lucas Korte

Matt Smith

Page 68: Book cover, Publishing as the Critical Practice

and Jake Ollinger), 2014.

of Graphic Design. Wheaton, IL: Are Not Books & Publications, 2014, 108 pages.

Credits & Figures Page 71: Are Not Books & Publications exhibiting at the CAA Book and Trade Fair, February 12â&#x20AC;&#x201C;15, 2014. Page 72: Book cover, A Useless Guide to Book Design. Wheaton, IL: Are Not Books & Publications, 2013, 245 pages.

The MFA Thesis Exhibition Catalog The University of Notre Dame Department of Art, Art History & Design Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition 2014.

This (non-)catalog is both: 1. a record of the exhibition on display in the Snite Museum of Art, April—May 2014, and 2. a concurrent, alternate, book-based MFA Thesis “Exhibition.” The work pictured here is not in every case the same as the work displayed in the Museum.

ND MFA University of Notre Dame Department of Art, Art History & Design Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition 2014