My art is a means for investigating the passage of time, the decay of physical things, and the truth of mortality. I explore these concepts through process-oriented sculptures that emphasize ritual and material. The process is communicated with the creation of relics, often existing as drawings or the remains of degenerated sculptures. These relics bear witness to the process. I focus on themes of temporal change and death because they remain central to our metaphysical and physical existence. I see a diminished reverence for the power of death in our culture, and through my work I aim to pay homage to death while offering viewers an experience of “being present,” a deeper awareness of our existence in time. The mindfulness I speak of is an awareness of life’s temporal nature. My intention is to evoke an awareness of mortality giving rise to feelings of gratitude and humility.

Esta dissertação investiga o processo de modernização da cidade de Fortaleza, nos anos 1930 e 1940, tendo como objeto as transformações arquitetônicas ocorridas na capital, mais especificamente em seu centro da cidade, núcleo nervoso e gravitacional, onde as mudanças ocorriam com maior ressonância. Interessa ambientar a consolidação desse ideário moderno em um contexto de intensas reformas urbanas, assinalado pelo progresso material, desenvolvimento tecnológico, aceleração da dinâmica urbana, maior racionalidade e funcionalidade, crescimento populacional e territorial, incremento do consumo e expansão do capital, fortemente marcado, também, pela crescente influência norte-americana, pela Segunda Grande Guerra Mundial e pela divulgação e aceitação da estética Art Déco. O intuito é produzir uma pesquisa que contribua para a história da Modernidade em Fortaleza, entendida como um conjunto de modificações econômicas, culturais e sociais, tendo como foco maior a arquitetura. / This essay investigates the process of modernization of Fortaleza, in years 1930 and 1940, having as object the architectural transformations placed in the city, more specifically in its center, where the changes occurred with bigger resonance. This process took place in a context of intense urban reforms, material progress, technological development, acceleration of the urban dynamics, bigger rationality and functionality, population and territorial growth, increment of the consumption and expansion of the capital, also strong marked for the increasing of North American influence, the Second Great World War and the spreading and acceptance of the aesthetic Art Déco. The main intention of this work is to produce a research that contributes for the history of Modernity in Fortaleza, understood as a set of economic, cultural and social modifications, having as principal focus the architecture.

The Great Plains are prevalent among the literature of the nineteenth century, but receive hardly a single representation among the landscapes of the Hudson River School. This is certainly surprising; the public was teeming with interest in the Midwest and yet the principal landscape painters who aimed to represent and idealize a burgeoning America offered hardly a glance past the Mississippi River. This geographical silence is the result of a tension between idealistic and empirical representations of the land, one echoed in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie, Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies, and Margaret Fuller’s Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Margaret Fuller’s more physical and intimate Transcendentalism unifies this tension in a manner that heralds the rise of the Luminists and the plains-scapes of Worthington Whittredge.

The release of the Monument Avenue Commission Report in July, 2018 was the culmination of over one year of research and collaboration with community members of Richmond, Virginia on how the city should approach the contentious history of Monument Avenue’s five Confederate centerpieces. What the monuments have symbolized within the predominately rich, white neighborhood and outside of its confines has been a matter of debate ever since they were unveiled, but the recent publicity accorded to Confederate monuments has led to considerations by historians, city leaders, and the public regarding recontextualization of Confederate monuments. Recontextualization of the monuments should not only consider the city’s current constituency, but also the lives, testimonies, and representations of Richmond’s African- American residents as the monuments were built. A comparative case study of photographs from various institutional archives in Richmond, Virginia, depicting late- nineteenth and early twentieth-century scenes from the city’s history reveals that while Monument Avenue and its Confederate celebrations benefitted the city’s upper-class white constituency, its messages extended far beyond Richmond and its Confederate veterans. By bringing to light images and testimonies from the archive that highlight African-American presence, a counter-narrative emerges detailing the construction of power in post-Reconstruction Richmond through Monument Avenue.

I convey my thoughts through art jewelry; making jewelry is my language of communication and commemoration. Inspired by historical Chinese art and contemporary jewelry, my practice pays attention to bring classical Chinese aesthetics of hazy poetic and ideal arrangement into the contemporary jewelry field. The attention to detail refers to the quiet contemplation and emotional experiences encouraged by each of my works. Through my research, I use metalsmithing language to communicate with non-precious materials finding my own way of expression and meditation. Meanwhile, I build environments that display jewelry off the body in order to construct a picturesque landscape. The research that lead to my thesis work, Through My Windows, which conveys the desire for mental escape. The Jewelry pieces become the keys to open the imagination and emotionally escape into an ideal state through making and viewing them.

The early history of Arakan has been generally considered to be that of a province of eastern India, and hence its study has been neglected by both Indian and Southeast Asian historians. This dissertation seeks to examine the dynamics of the history from the beginnings of urbanization until the rise of the Burmese empire which subsequently dominated Arakanese culture. The first chapter deals with the geographical and ethnolinguistic background to the development of the earliest cities. In the second, all the inscriptions of the period, in Sanskrit, Pali and Pyu are catalogued and edited. The inscriptions issued by the kings establish a chronology for the period and illustrate the nature of the cult surrounding the institution of kingship, while copper-plate and votive inscriptions elucidate the nature of state organisation and the popular religion. Chapter Three deals with the coinage which emerged following the development of a centralised economy, and discusses the impetus for this and the role of the king on whom the prosperity of the country depended. A comparison with similar coin types in Southeast Asia is made and the catalogue includes all the coins yet discovered. The sites of the most important monuments are discussed in Chapter Four, which catalogues all the architectural and sculptural remains. A comparative analysis of the Buddhist and Hindu images and of the minor arts reveals, to a greater extent that do the inscriptions, the nature of contact with India and the rest of Southeast Asia. The conclusion deals with the political and cultural history which thus emerges, examining in detail the rationale behind the development of the concept of divine kingship in Arakan.

Little did Hadrian know in 130 A.D. that when he deified his beloved departed Antinous, in order to provide a unifying symbol of worship for his diverse empire, that he was instead creating a lasting symbol of the antique world. This thesis examines the power of nostalgia and its successful use by two formidable men from different eras in Rome: The Emperor Hadrian and the extravagantly wealthy Renaissance merchant Agostino Chigi. Though separated by centuries, each man used the nostalgic allure of the beautiful youthful male figure of Antinous to gain power and influence in his own time and to leave a lasting impact on generations to come. Using the statue known as the Farnese Antinous I will show that these very different men were not so different after all: each understood the human tendency to romanticize the past, and each attempted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the past from those they sought to “conquer.” Hadrian used portraits of Antinous to unite an empire and cement his place in history; Agostino used one of those very same portraits in commissioned artworks by Raphael to earn his place among the nobility of his day, and to leave a lasting legacy for his descendants.

Brutalist architecture, popularized in Britain in the late 1950s and heralded as a progressive form of Modernism in the United States until the 1970s, now presents a conundrum to preservationists as it ages. Once critically acclaimed, many Brutalist buildings have lost their appeal over time. The unpolished materials have proven unpopular with many who live and work in these structures, and key examples of the style are now facing demolition. Though “Brutalism” has become a nebulous architectural designation in the preservation community, this paper focuses on a specific subset of late Modernist architecture that primarily utilizes unfinished concrete to promote the philosophy of material truth and unapologetic permanence. While artistry of form and overall functionality affect preservation of Brutalist buildings in the United States, an important factor in the decision to demolish is often overlooked: the interplay of public opinion with critical acclaim, both in the past and within current architectural climates. This project examines the Brutalist approach to architecture and chronicles the shifts in critical and public perspective of several key case studies, focusing on university structures (the Yale Art and Architecture Building, Harry Ransom Center, and the University of Texas School of Nursing), theaters (Morris Mechanic Theater and Alley Theater), and civic buildings (Orange County Government Center, Boston City Hall, and Prentice Women’s Hospital). Understanding how and why shifts in opinion took place is critical in making informed preservation decisions about Brutalist architecture. / text

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

As a word, glamour is hard to define, but is instantly recognizable. Its association with Hollywood movie stars fully emerged in the 1930s in the close-up celebrity portraits by photographers like George Hurrell. The aesthetic properties in these images that help create glamour are characterized by the Modernist style, known for sharp focus, high contrast, seductive poses, and the close-up (tight framing). My essay will explore the origins of the visual aesthetics of glamour, arguing that their roots can be found in the still life photographs of the 1910s, produced by fine art photographers such as Edward Steichen. This essay will primarily focus on the photography of Edward Steichen because he used these same techniques found in his still life portraits on Hollywood celebrities when he began working for Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair and Vogue in 1923. Steichen changed the conversation on how to photograph celebrities and his practices eventually led to the creation of glamour portrait photography. This thesis documents the ways in which Steichen established the precedent for glamour photography when he applied the close-up and Modernist style on Hollywood stars. The result of Steichen’s application was photography that provided visually identifiable and mechanically reproducible glamour.