Adaptation
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Norlen, Alison | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Borsa, Joan | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Bath, Jon | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Martin, Ann RC | |
| dc.creator | Broussard, Rachel S 1994- | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-10-30T19:08:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-10-30T19:08:10Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2019-09 | |
| dc.date.submitted | September 2019 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2019-10-30T19:08:10Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Adaptation is an installation that offers a view of the Anthropocene. Through collage sculptures composed from glossy coffee table nature photography books found at Saskatoon’s used book sales, I critique the human tendency to commodify the natural world. Some of these books depict scenes and creatures from tropical locations, and some depict flora native to North America. I morph these images with sculpting, collage, and paper cutting to create bizarre transformations that reflect the chaos of human intervention in nature and the mayhem caused by insatiable human curiosity. I transform the flowers of North America into fantastical hybrid creatures that levitate above the ground; I merge tropical fish and coral into alien bodies that are both alluring and grotesque; I encourage rainforest animals and vegetation to cross pollinate and mutate into unique and sometimes malicious species. As I light the precarious sculptures, I create an alternate world on the walls and floor of the gallery, and through the dramatic shadows, the creatures mutate further as their silhouettes shift and dance. I slice through the collage surfaces with lace like cut-out patterns that sometimes organically follow the veins of the creatures, like the consumptive trail left behind a caterpillar munching on a leaf, and sometimes appear as geometric designs. On the one hand, the cut-outs aesthetically enhance these figures, but they also weaken them, making them vulnerable, structurally weak, frail and delicate, much like the impact of many of our human processes upon the natural environment. By combining these sculptural collages with everyday materials as props, I compose an environment that mirrors the landscape of the Anthropocene. It is an environment cobbled together from native, introduced, and invasive species. Adaptation beckons the viewer to question the line between what is natural and what is the product of human intervention. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12428 | |
| dc.subject | collage | |
| dc.subject | installation | |
| dc.subject | sculpture | |
| dc.subject | Anthropocene | |
| dc.subject | animals | |
| dc.subject | plants | |
| dc.subject | nature | |
| dc.subject | photography | |
| dc.title | Adaptation | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Art and Art History | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Studio Art | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Saskatchewan | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) |