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In/finite limits

Abstract Details

2003, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.

This research is representative of the present condition of my art practice and the underlying conceptual basis for it. My work is generated out of the body's capacity to employ external resources to satisfy inner drives. It draws from all stages of the developing self, simultaneously approaching an adult of 25 with an infant in a mother's womb.

The work mostly takes three-dimensional form, consisting of artifacts appropriated from the realm of everyday consumer goods, and sometimes involving performance. The works are ephemeral, emphasizing the unstable conditions inherent in such materials as lipstick, sexual lubricant, and vegetable shortening.

A concentration is placed on the artist's body as a site of constant negotiation between inside and outside. Upon contact with my materials, through thought and physical touch, substances are passed through my being, dissolving the body's limits. The viewer is addressed from a psychologically charged arena of emotion and desire, demonstrating how personal homogeneity is ruptured by inevitable projections of a part of oneself outside the self.

Finally, I have sustained a belief in this body of work, that consciousness is inseparable from a body, and the notion of a completely integrated self is impossible.

Todd Slaughter, Professor (Advisor)
Ann Hamilton, Professor (Committee Member)
Pamela Fraser, Professor (Committee Member)
49 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Agnew, R. (2003). In/finite limits [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322584948

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Agnew, Ryan. In/finite limits. 2003. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322584948.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Agnew, Ryan. "In/finite limits." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322584948

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)