Time travel & the invisible body : pattern-making, painting & mauri in the Anthropocene : MFA thesis, Massey University

Abstract

My thesis project brings together two and a half years of studio focused and research work and builds on an established practice. My engagement has been works and ideas around ‘pattern-making’ and ‘abstraction.’ Recently a new element has been added which we could call illustration. This has deepened the possibility for narrative, and nuance in the work.

The idea of ‘time travel’ in the project is an analysis of the changes that occur in art historical moments when viewed through a contemporary lens and how we might imagine the future. It is about imagining art history as more than a chronological end. Time Invisible bodies are evident everywhere in art. Artwork does not exist without the movement of travel encompasses indigenous views of circular time, the maker's body or the thinking involved. Figuration is not a necessary element for me. Rather, I am imagining spaces that we might exist in; these spaces have been traditions in western abstraction and indigenous pattern-making. What happens when a hybrid version is created? These ideas and works are presented within the reality of the anthropocene and what is potentially late capitalism.