Thesis Project and Exhibition

Catalog description

During the spring semester of their second year, MFA students will mount a public presentation of artworks, demonstrating the achievements in the student’s area of specialization. The candidate, in consultation with their Graduate Faculty Advisor, is responsible for selecting the content and curating the exhibition. Students will produce an extensive (ca. 5,000-8,000 word) written exposition describing the specific artistic inquiries that generated the body of work. This means offering context about their process and tracing their evolution of thought by critically reflecting on the artists and disciplines that have influenced their practice during their MFA. Critical reflection entails making connections between research and practice. Students should describe concepts and ideas from their academic or field research that they adapt or translate into their work, noting specific formal techniques, uses of materials, and engagements of viewers that convey their artistic inquiry. If other art is a component of research, they should describe how formal elements convey artistic, cultural, social, or thematic inquiries. Most significantly, students should convey a method (i.e., a critical lens onto the artistic inquiry) to their arts practice and foreground how their work contributes to broader debates, not necessarily one limited to art, but at large in the world. They should reflect upon their intuitions in making for how they might be further developed to elicit or evoke particular responses from particular audiences. The paper will explain how their thinking and research helped them with the making. This statement must also include a discussion of the methods, media, and format used. It will also pay attention to the relationship between the student's work to cultural, historical, and social context, as well as other issues (such as social or psychological questions) of…