Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Visual Art & Design

First Advisor

Kari Friestad

Abstract

As one of the most recurrent subjects of visual art, the human form as been an important means of communicating human experiences and expressing the philosophical and scientific thoughts of a society. During the early 20th century, artists in Europe began distorting and abstracting the human figure in ways that were unprecedented and often times visually unsettling to emphasize its withdrawn and isolated condition while also suggesting a sense of fragility and vulnerability. Although there are various forms of isolation that can result from a number of different causes, my project explores the concept of social isolation brought about by an impermeability of boundaries, or a disconnection between the self and other identities through the creation of a body of work. It also examines theories of self-identity and formation by social theorists such as W.E.B. Du Bois and his notion of a double consciousness, defined as looking at one's self through the eyes of the other. Finally, my creative project considers how vulnerability and the idea of an other-self entity can function as a means of relating or forming a connection with the other.

Subject Area

Social isolation in art., Art.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/95/

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