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Perception and reality

Buxton, Roger Gillette

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1998, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.

Since entering graduate school I have been involved in an exploration of many different materials and techniques. This has given me a variety of ways to develop my artistic interests because each material has its own unique characteristics. During this time the work has alternated between installations and photographic work. This exploration has informed my long-standing interest in describing a site, its functions, and innate characteristics. I have found it very useful to develop these interests with the help of both disciplines because of their similarities and dissimilarities.

Though the visceral experience of the viewer is different when interacting with sculpture and photography, both claim to give the viewer a kind of real experience. Sculpture in part because the work exists three-dimensionally in space; photography because of its general acceptance as an indexical medium recording and cataloging actual events. A substantial component of my work is challenging these assumptions while exploring what is inherent to each discipline.

In a strange way, the photographic work was born out of my disillusionment with documentation as an accurate record of sculpture. As I began to use some of the mechanical characteristics of the camera (i.e., cropping, depth of field, and monocular vision) with a different end in mind, my objectives for the work began to change. Cropping, part of the process of photography, gave me the ability to focus the viewer on particular aspects of my work. With a seamless photographic surface, I could implicate an actual event yet represent an impossible situation.

Architecture has played a large role in this exploration in both content and site. The sculptural installations incorporate the distinct characteristics and functions of a site and juxtapose them with architectural elements, materials, and symbols. Through these installations the viewers are encouraged to experience specific parts of the place, and to focus on qualities they might not otherwise notice. By changing the context and manipulating the scale of a place and its parts, my intention is to locate the viewer in unfamiliar territory questioning the accuracy of perception, the identification of symbols and the nature of a place.

Todd Slaughter (Advisor)
Malcolm Cochran (Committee Member)
Laura Lisbon (Committee Member)
25 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Buxton, R. G. (1998). Perception and reality [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322761757

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Buxton, Roger. Perception and reality. 1998. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322761757.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Buxton, Roger. "Perception and reality." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 1998. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1322761757

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)