Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1253891174.pdf (3.92 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Cake Or Death – That’s an Easy Question

Haeseler, Bethany
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1253891174

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.
My work explores body adornment, consumable artwork, and desire. Narrative stories influence the works, recreating aspects of past personal experience as a woman affected battles with Anorexia and Bulimia. In this thesis work, I utilized techniques that I practice in creating kiln formed glass to make works with materials that mimic it: hard candy and sugar. At first glance, it is hard to recognize what some sculptural components are actually made of. Is this beautiful glass? It certainly looks like it, and it’s in a gallery, but if the audience touches it, the stickiness exposes it’s true nature. Like glass, the hard candy is fragile, but instead of being a vessel or being a piece of jewelry, it’s intended to provide an option to be consumed. To a corset made of hard candy, I add Syrup of Ipecac to the formula, in order to induce vomiting as a way to temper the consumption of the sweets that might otherwise adorn the body as fat. Through video, attendant to the candy piece, I present an image the experience of consuming beyond the point of satisfaction, in order to satisfy others. I also offered (safe) sweets as gifts to the audience in a performance work, the cravings of the audience are satisfied, while the artist is denied these very pleasures. Since this all comes down to memory, the process and even motion of making the works is as significant as the final product.
Richard Harned, MFA (Advisor)
Mary Jo Bole, MFA (Committee Member)
Todd Slaughter, MFA (Committee Member)
Fine Arts
eating disorders; glass; hard candy; anorexia; bulimia

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Haeseler, B. (2009). Cake Or Death – That’s an Easy Question [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1253891174

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Haeseler, Bethany. Cake Or Death – That’s an Easy Question. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1253891174.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Haeseler, Bethany. "Cake Or Death – That’s an Easy Question." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1253891174

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1253891174
760
© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.