Through acts of preservation my work deals with perceptions of identity and tradition within family structures while also addressing our expectations of photography and the ways in which it fails. Photographs continually promise what they cannot deliver. They are a physical object denoting the possibility of an infinite existence yet represents how ephemeral these experiences and we are. They represent our memories, good or bad, without empathy, serving as hatch marks on our lives, forcing us to always look backwards for the answers. With a slight sorrow, we reflect on past realities of ex lovers, relatives, vacations, and all of the other moments we deemed worthy enough of documenting. We build catalogues of our lives, which become seas of anonymity for future generations. This work is about the failure in our perceptions of infinity and the medium we've come to rely so heavily on to represent us as once being present. Through photographs, film, and performances of familial traditions I examine relations of these acts and places to a sense of existence, creating a language of self-reference to map the past.
Thesis
These things happened and this is how I know
University of Iowa
Master of Fine Arts (MFA), University of Iowa
Spring 2013
DOI: 10.17077/etd.seala2n7
Free to read and download, Open Access
Abstract
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- These things happened and this is how I know
- Creators
- Sarah Phyllis Smith - University of Iowa
- Contributors
- James Snitzer (Advisor)Isabel Barbuzza (Committee Member)David Dunlap (Committee Member)Robert Glasgow (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Fine Arts (MFA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Art
- Date degree season
- Spring 2013
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.seala2n7
- Number of pages
- vii, 43 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 Sarah Phyllis Smith
- Comment
This thesis has been optimized for improved web viewing. If you require the original version, contact the University Archives at the University of Iowa: https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/contact/.
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- illustrations (some color)
- Academic Unit
- School of Art, Art History, and Design
- Record Identifier
- 9983776815802771
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