Edificial Epistemologies: Thesis Talk

This performative lecture was given as part of my MFA thesis. The primary goal was to contextualize my process and interests. It is about 30 minutes long followed by 30 minutes of Q&A.

Updated Artist’s Statement

Edificial Epistemologies, 2012-2019, mixed media, 13’x17′

I recently completed an MFA in Studio Art at the Maryland Instituted College of Art. The image above is from my thesis exhibition and represents a new direction for my work–an ongoing, modular drawing. I have several projects in the works, but I wrote a short artist’s statement to sum up my overarching interests and the foundation of my practice:

My practice is built around investigating Edificial Epistemologies—humanity’s efforts to construct knowledge into mental and physical architectures in a search for truth and transcendence. My research materials span from ancient cosmologies to speculative fictions and the myriad of philosophies, theologies, and aesthetics between.

This project manifests through various media and modes, but the scaffolding guiding the construction is an ongoing modular drawing. On these modules I map, diagram, and notate my research into a labyrinthine puzzle of references and structures that serve as a semantic gesture towards both the above mentioned concepts and, more simply, the aesthetic pleasure of thought.

I use drawing as my primary tool because drawing is thinking. It is a method of transcribing the intangibilities of thought into material substance. By drawing forth structures that can be seen, manipulated, and shared I make visible the abstract mental realm and create a dialog between ideas and reality. Like thoughts, these modules can be endlessly reconfigured, separated, dispersed, replaced, and updated.

In examining humanity’s projects and endeavors throughout time and space I begin to see the shadowy outline of a fragmented edifice crumbling towards heaven.