Thesis (M.A)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves [199]-212.

In the 1990s internationally renowned Indian artist Sheela Gowda exchanged oil paint for cow-dung. This dramatic shift occurred in response to the rise in Hindu fundamentalism and as way to voice her distress at the violence of the Hindu / Muslim riots. From a eurocentric art-historical perspective, adopting cow-dung to create art may seem like a radical move, but in India it is a material rich in multi layered histories and one resonating with ritual, economic and gendered subtexts and overtones. This thesis analyzes Gowda's multi-coded artworks in an attempt to render more visible an artist who is an important contributor to the international contemporary art scene, to render viable arts usually considered marginal, minor or folk, and to balance an art historical canon which still favours the "high arts" as well as white, western or male artists. It argues not only for the validity of art in its many forms, but also for art historical scholarship which functions as bridge to forge meaning and open up dialogue between artists, viewers, critics and curators.

<p>Although interest in the work of untrained artists has surged recently, appearing everywhere from the Venice Biennale to The New Yorker, the art world’s fascination with American autodidacts began nearly a century ago. My dissertation examines how and why American artists without formal training first crashed the gates of major museums and galleries between 1927 and 1940 through case studies on the most celebrated figures of the period: John Kane (1860–1934), Horace Pippin (1888–1946), and Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses (1860–1961). All three painters were exhibited as “modern primitives,” a category that emerged in the wake of the French naïve Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) but which took on a distinct character in the United States where it became a space for negotiating renewed debates about authenticity in American art as well as pervasive social anxieties over how immigration, race, and industrialization were changing the country. In addition to establishing how the “modern primitive" fit into the pluralistic landscape of American modernism, my dissertation reaches into the present, exploring how the interwar breakthroughs of Kane, Pippin, and Moses prefigured the ubiquity of self-taught artists—often referred to as “outsider” artists—in American museums today.</p> / Dissertation

This study is based on the catalogue/checklist of Pierneef works in the Pretoria Art Museum collection. The artist’s life, social, political and artistic influences of the period, both local and international, may be deduced from works analysed and discussed. The Arts and Crafts movement was a powerful influence affecting ideas on national identity, folk art and the vernacular from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. A world-wide romantic nationalism stimulated a search for identity and exploitation of the indigenous. It is argued that these trends may be identified in the artistic development of Pierneef who, through friends, wide reading and intensive study was alive to European developments but focused on the indigenous arts of Southern Africa. He was the first South African artist to recognize Busman art and that of the black peoples. They had a profound influence on his own development and the motifs of his art. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 1997. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

This thesis is a study of the “underground” cycling community in Ogden, Utah. Countercultural cycling micro-communities exist across the United States, if not the world, but have not yet been thoroughly studied by folklorists. This research establishes a foundational understanding of the nature of underground cycling culture, particularly in relation to identity. Using folkloric definitions of identity and subculture as my foundation, I examine four different facets of cyclist activities: folk art, folk events, narratives, and the community’s use of space. These four facets provide a variety of lenses through with to examine actualized, expressive cyclist behavior. Each facet also illustrates the different levels (personal, community, and global) at which identity is performed. The most personal performances of cyclist identity are through the folk art of modified bicycles. Modifications tend to reflect the personality of the cyclist, and consequently a bicycle comes to hold much symbolism for the cyclist. The communitylevel studies consisted of examining group events where I observed how the group interacted with itself. The performance and participation in activities are what constitutes an actual cycling community, rather than a series of individual cyclists. The examination of narratives moves outward to contextualize the cycling microcommunity within the larger Ogden community. This chapter explores the role of conflict, illustrates how cyclists think of themselves, and illustrates how cyclists define themselves in opposition to motorists. The community spaces examination looks at the use of physical space versus digital space. These spaces illustrate how the community behaves amongst itself versus how the community behaves amongst the larger, online, Utah cycling community. The physical space reflected the creativity and utilitarian needs of the group. The restrictive digital spaces manage to be expressive through images and language. Internal group conflict occurs more often online, however, due to infractions of implicit group etiquette, possibly as a symptom of a less personal form of interaction. The marginalized, cyclist identity seemed to hold the greatest rewards at the more intimate, personal levels. Moving outward towards broader community-level contests, cyclist identity seems to become a source of conflict.

This thesis explores the folk resurrection of the thylacine through artwork and symbolic interaction. The thylacine, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, is a marsupial that suffered a government-sanctioned massacre leading to its extinction in 1936. The thylacine’s status as a hidden animal has inspired what folklorists call “ostensive practice”; people not only actively seek out the thylacine in the wilderness of Tasmania today and share their sightings online, but they have also incorporated the thylacine as a symbol of hope and perseverance into various forms of folk art. There have been upwards of five thousand documented sightings of the thylacine since its extinction. This documentation can take the form of amateur or phone-recorded films, or sightings described in interviews for local news agencies. Some people have even found alleged biological remains of the thylacine and have described hearing its unique call. In addition to these types of legend-tripping activities, the thylacine is also represented in a variety of folk-art forms, including digital, painted, and hand-drawn artwork, written fiction, fiber arts, and costuming. This content is shared widely across the internet. Keeping the thylacine alive through the creation of folk art and legend-tripping search parties helps thylacine enthusiasts cope with the guilt for having lost an ecologically important animal due directly to ignorance and financial gain. If the thylacine is resurrected, whether literally or figuratively, people can symbolically undo some of the damage they have caused the natural world. Thus, the vernacular resurrection of the thylacine, understood through a folklorist lens, offers a model for comparing some of the vernacular ways that people are presently dealing with the general loss of wildlife due to climate change.

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published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture