Gāpatia i Fa'anoanoaga is a general Samoan expression which literally means 'burden with sadness', which encompasses all aspects of loss and grief in relation to the burden of obligation to reciprocity. This project has functioned as lightening the load of the burden of grief and loss through the process of making an art installation exploring a migrant Samoan experience.My project is concerned with the exploration of Samoan matters of cultural significance such as heritage, religion, identity and family, in particular those customs pertaining to deaths and funerals. The mores and values implicit in these reflect the fundamental aspects of obligation and reciprocity in Samoan life and society. As a Samoan-born and New Zealand raised woman, my work and explorations tended to engage with the challenges of disrupting boundaries formed around ideas of cultural appropriation and cultural authenticity.Therefore this project investigates my position as a migrant Samoan living in New Zealand exploring notions of mobility and globalisation and the effects on the obligation to reciprocity through practical art means. Importantly my art practice intends to explore and position the installation of contemporary materials to speak metaphorically about my identity and issues significant to the obligation to reciprocity in the fa'aSamoa (the Samoan way or in the manner of the Samoans; according to Samoan customs and traditions) particularly the concept tautua aiga (tautua means functions or any service performed in order to support aiga or family)Conceptually my work addresses and brings forth for consideration the impact of mobility and globalisation on cultural issues and practices. Through engagement with contemporary materials and processes my work reflects a kind of 'story-telling', which in this instance is a lament for those who have passed on and for a way of life that is in flux

This paper explores the `creative' process of postmemory in relation to family photographs, story telling, the absence of memory, and the subsequent construction of new and elastic family histories in my MFA thesis artwork. I define postmemory and how it relates to the limited number of existing photographs that document my family's experience as displaced persons and immigrants. I also discuss how literalist art has influenced the works in my thesis exhibition and outline the reasons for the absence of actual photographs in my work. Then, drawing from Freud's ideas of the condensation of dreams and the formation of screen memories, I discuss the relationship between historical family photographs, the memories elicited by them, and the act of forgetting to reveal the elasticity of truth in postmemory and how my work represents the beginnings of a personal understanding of a fragmented family history riddled with holes and unknowns. I also describe and discuss the two installation works found in my thesis exhibition, which are titled Descendant and Lineage. Finally, I outline the influence of other artists and describe how these ideas are tied together in my artwork.

The aim of my work is to investigate the conditions of contemporary art and self-colonising tendencies in the production, perception and circulation of art between the online and offline space as well as the theoretical, contextual and political background of this process. The self-promotional character of mediating my own artwork over the internet is given by the widely used technology options, the preset architecture of web content for distribution of visual content, as well as the dominant aesthetic canon of documentary artwork and exhibitions dictated by influential visual blogs from the Contemporary Art Daily to the Ofluxo , Tzvetnik or others. I recognize the artistic practice in this context as an aesthetic loop and the accelerative impotence of a digital image given by the political conditions of information technology. The practical output of the work will consist of two textile objects.Design of objects and the DIY part of it will be created by me, but the objects stiching will be realized by Slovak designer / model Michal Šumichrast, who creates his own branding under the name SUMICRAFT. I think that the aesthetics and the process of producing his work and life itself corresponds to the social policy of the new global class of cultural producers. His artistic practice is contextually similar to my practice and to the social / political economic issues of the current precariat class that I examine in my theoretical and practical work. As a final result of the research the objects will be documented in "high resolution" and sent back to the Internet. Either in the form of an Instagram post, or as a self-colonising process within some of the "most up-to-date" online platforms for contemporary art.

"Passage" presents a negotiation between the natural and the human-made realms and comments on the duality of perceptions and emotional responses associated with each. On the one hand, I aim to create a calm, quiet and peaceful environment offering a pleasant and meditative experience.  On the other hand, I offer the challenge of contemplation in a city-like space that evokes dense urban architecture in the process of decay. Both experiences draw on my personal histories of fact and fiction, reality and dream, hopefully resulting in evocative parallel experiences for those who encounter my exhibition space.

In 2001 when this research commenced, there was little understanding in Saudi Arabia of the opportunities digital art could provide for artists, how it could be integrated with or used instead of painting, and the effects the enlarged vocabulary could have in communicating difficult social issues. As a result, this study aimed at filling a gap in knowledge through reviewing contemporary Saudi art. This, in turn, helped me to understand the position of my practice. The study also aimed at developing a means of expression in which traditional art can be combined with digital media and showing how this combination provides a new direction for Saudi art by raising awareness in Saudi Arabia about complex issues. In addition, the study aimed at determining the acceptability of this new form of art to artistically literate Saudi artists through gathering audience’s reactions to the developed artefacts. This study comprised of several stages: discovering the state of art in Saudi Arabia and where it fits into the global stage; documenting my journey as an artist and understanding my practice; the creation of the installation and its reception, all of which was documented in a reflective journal. Through reflecting on my practice, I transformed my work from simple traditional pieces of art to more complex installations concerning everyday gender politics. I interviewed 20 practicing artists, noting that the majority of their work used traditional forms of art rather than digital art. A week-long exhibition on gender differences in Saudi Arabia was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The feedback from the exhibition showed that, although there is not a strong appreciation of digital art in Saudi Arabia, the audience was able to understand the different components of the installations and the underlying issues being portrayed. They were able to bring their own experiences to the situation and reflected on the installations accordingly. The study contributes to knowledge by providing a review of contemporary Saudi Artists as there is no significant literature that documents this in Saudi Arabia. It also contributes to knowledge by exploring and developing artefacts that incorporate different technologies and by showing that digital media and traditional art can be used together to articulate complex social issues arising in everyday Saudi life. Finally, it fills a gap in knowledge of how Saudi audiences engage with works that use a combination of traditional and new art to express such issues.

Dysfunctional examines the relationships and experiences that contribute to my art. I grew up in an unsafe environment, with dysfunctional people. This work serves as a peek inside some of those emotions and explores issues of codependence and abusive family systems that suffer but endure. There is no victim in this story only a strong survivor who wants to cultivate awareness through her work. I have revisited this subject as a way to overcome shame. By being vulnerable and sharing my experiences I am able to heal.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This thesis investigates social aspects of the production and distribution of artworks, approaching these from the context of the every-day life of the artist. Its main aim is to form a theoretical framework and personalised application of auto/ ethnography to enable the artist to study her own practice within a specific context. The thesis serves as a counterpart to the practical work that is expected of a Master of arts student at this particular university and in this department, the University of Stellenbosch, Department of Visual Arts. As such, it works in tandem with the practical component to posit an understanding of the artworks as they have been formed in a complex postmodern society. I, as the artist and writer, discuss my work by drawing from autobiographical experiences and theoretical frameworks as texts. Auto/ethnography, the chosen methodology, is informed by post-structuralism, Marxist and neo-Marxist theories and feminist discourses, among others. It calls for researchers to apply self-reflexivity in their practice and, hence, must include the situated position of the ‘I’ of the researcher, as this inevitably impacts on research findings. My writing on my art-making process becomes a form of ‘emergent’ research that studies the relationship between the self and the social. This takes place through the use of autobiographical texts and the above-mentioned theoretical frameworks, combined with relational and dialogical theories of art, and frameworks that study art production and distribution from sociological perspectives. I write myself as constituted within ideology and subject to societal structure, but also possessing agency. I write on my art as a product determined by my position in society; my intentions and aims for the artwork and considerations on how its distribution might affect me; and its function as a text that carries meanings that differ from those which I, at any given time, might ascribe to it. The framework in which I write on my art-making process also draws on complexity theory. Within this framework I approach the self as relational, society and the environment as a complex self-structuring process, and the meaning of text as created and re-created in a web of interactions, between the self (of the writer/artist and reader/viewer) and the society (as built up of different interrelating subsystems). Writing auto/ethnographically to produce an academic dissertation within this specific academic community can, I believe, serve as a means through which I can question my own objectivising claims, or claims that lie in theoretical and personal frameworks that I draw from. Implicit in this thesis is the question: how can an artist, working within the confines of an academic framework, ensure that an ethical component exists between the self and other in her working practice?

In today’s lexicon a ‘Daily Constitutional’ usually refers to a daily walk. But in actuality, a ‘Daily Constitutional’ is something that one does on a daily basis that is beneficial to one’s constitution or healthful(1); and one’s constitution being the aggregate of a person’s physical and psychological characteristics(2). With this definition, the daily constitutional refers to any daily activity that improves a person’s physical or mental health. At various stages in my life I may have understood my constitutional to be any number of things and it was not until I came into my own did I truly discover my Daily Constitutional, the creative process. In the following thesis I will be covering my thoughts and opinions on the creative process as well as my role of Artist in a larger art community. The thesis consists of six chapters, each being a letter I wrote for Daily Constitutional, A Publication for the Artist’s Voice as the Editor-in-Chief. I created the Daily Constitutional in 2005 in order to provide my contemporary colleagues with an opportunity to once again have a voice in the art world. The publication is entirely submission based with an international open call. Each semi-annual issue is created out of the submissions received and composed by a rotating panel of six artists and has been ongoing throughout my tenure at Virginia Commonwealth University. The mission of the publication is to provide an outlet and forum for the individual Artist’s voice, rather than the cacophony that is the art world at large (galleries, critics, curators, museums, patrons and finally the artists themselves). To provide a place to express, exchange and discuss, without interpretation, the artist’s opinions, ideas and discoveries within one’s practice. This publication can only be made possible, through a collaboration of individual Artists.(3) This document was created with Adobe InDesign CS2. 1. “constitutional.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 03 May. 2009. . 2. “constitution.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 03 May. 2009. . 3. “Mission Statement,” Daily Constitutional, A Publication for the Artist’s Voice, 2005-09, http://www.dailyconstitutional.org/mission_statement.html

This dissertation examines the video-installations created by American artist Dan Graham in the 1970s. It investigates the artist's relationship to Minimalism by analyzing themes Graham highlights in his own writings and in interviews. In particular, I explore how the artist's understanding of Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, and R.D. Laing informed his post-Minimalist work and how concepts gleaned from these sources are manifest in his video-installations. Also undertaken are discussions of the artist's interest in aestheticized play, the just-past present, the debate between Behaviourism and phenomenology, surveillance, and Modern architecture. In addition, I investigate Graham's position in Conceptual art, use of site-specificity, and the practice of institutional critique. At the outset, I provide an in-depth analysis of two of Graham's magazine pieces, Schema (March 1966) and Homes For America, that ties together the artist's reading of Marcuse and his rejection of Minimalist phenomenology. Next, I give an account of the artist's connection to early video art and his use of time-delay in works such as Present Continuous Past(s) and Two Viewing Rooms as a means to highlight the just-past present. Finally, I examine Graham's architectural video-installations Yesterday/Today, Video Piece for Showcase Windows in a Shopping Arcade, and Video Piece for Two Glass Office Buildings as instances of site-specific art and as part of the artist's practice of institutional critique. I also explore his references to the notions of art-as-window and art-as-mirror as an expansion of his engagement with Minimalism. Throughout, my discussion includes comparisons between Graham's work and that of other artists like Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, and Hans Haacke. In sum, this study offers an expanded understanding of how Graham employed video and installation in his art as a means to move beyond Minimalism and to interrogate contemporary American society.

This thesis is a description and critical analysis of the processes, concepts and imagery of my artwork. I am interested in creating visual narratives, often figurative, in the form of sculpture, collage, and installation. In my work I attempt to call attention to the human condition, specifically addressing sexuality, mortality, psychological issues and power struggles. I incorporate both cultural and personal references and use traditional and non traditional materials and processes that are intended to conceptually inform the viewer further. My intention is to create distinct embodiments that provoke contemplative emotion and in which the object and the aesthetic experience allow us to consider and reconsider who we are and how we progress as a culture.