This multimedia visual arts project investigates, from a personal perspective, changes in the context of Cook Islands’ women’s adornment. In a modern world, changes in adornment have become disconnected from cultural traditions and so this study explores how over time evolving patterns of adornment are employed by women to identify their place in society. Observations have been drawn from the developing relationship between the researcher and the women in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands’ community where this project took place. These observations are documented explored and articulated primarily through the medium of photography, and principally by way of the snapshot and the portrait. This examination of Cook Islands’ women and their adornment from traditional adornment to the contemporary influences of modern day fashion has further been explored through a visual response to the relationships between the women and the layers of their adornment. This visual arts project is compromised of an exegesis with a value of 20% and a practical component of 80%.

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As a child growing up, I was always in love with the ritual of “dress up”. Whether it was my dolls, various reluctant pets, or myself, it was always an activity I loved. It is not surprising then that adornment has become the medium through which I express myself and bring my fantasy world to life. Jewelry and accessory have the potential to lead many lives. One particular piece can change entirely by putting it on one body as opposed to another, or by removing it to see it as an object. In fashion, the body is the canvas and the runway becomes the moment of performance. My work uses the body in much the same way where the wearer becomes performer. Through this act, we construct personal forms of armor, or “power suits”, to face the battlefield of the outside world. In harnessing this act of adorning and what it encompasses, I am consistently challenged as both designer and maker. Creating alter egos, whether subtly flirtatious or overtly sexual, demure or flamboyant, are some of the many ways in which these “power suits” can be concocted. The stories we project about ourselves daily, through how we adorn our naked bodies, become empowering. Myths versus reality, ascetic versus sensual, and beautiful versus ugly are some of the concepts from which I draw inspiration. These dualities are conceptually expressed in my work through physical combinations of opposing materials. Mixing mediums, through methods such as collaging, beading, needlepointing, knitting, and sewing, are integral in my designs. With alternative materials, such as feathers, textiles, and yarns, I add softness and new scintillating sensations when juxtaposed with the hard, cold qualities of metal. Through combining such materials, I construct pieces that not only challenge one’s notion of what “pretty” is, but also inspire the way one thinks about body adornment. The objects I create become vessels that actualize the dualities I strive to express. In producing hybrids of materials, my need to explore these dichotomies is satisfied.

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What is the very first thing you notice about a person? Appearance? What if the first thing you saw was everything that they were trying to hide? We would see every flaw but we would also see every truth. What Lies Beneath is an exploration of interior and exterior and an exposure to the dark and abject inside all of us; the parts we keep hidden and the things that build up until they have no place else to go. Rooted in an examination of the human psyche, my thesis explores the difference between the facade we project to the world and the truth within ourselves.

Creatures of the sea, creating wearable adornment to protect the body and unique materials, inspire my artwork. Through research and examination of sea creatures, I look to their defense mechanisms and imagine what it would be like if humans had similar qualities or if we could borrow from these beings and transform the way we physically protect our bodies. Through mixed materials I form adornment that acts as armor and the human being and the sea creature merge. The following pages will give you access to my thought process, accounts of technical experimentation, and my body of work.

Crystalline minerals such as fluorite have been recovered from numerous prehistoric sites in the Midcontinent yet little research had previously been conducted concerning who used it and what they used it for. Ethnohistorical accounts inform us that crystalline minerals were of importance to American Indians during the Historic Period. These accounts are used to provide a basis for exploring the possible significance of fluorite to prehistoric peoples living near outcrops located along the lower Ohio River valley. In this thesis I analyze mainly prehistoric fluorite personal adornment items as well as similar items made from other locally available raw materials such as cannel coal and clay to gain an understanding of the importance of this colorful crystalline mineral to prehistoric inhabitants of the midcontinent.

Submitted by MARLON APARECIDO MERCALDI null (marlonmercaldi@hotmail.com) on 2016-04-07T13:42:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 joiacontemporanea.pdf: 3302258 bytes, checksum: 2c1ee8172b9f9a2895d7593b6bfac013 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-07T20:20:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 mercaldi_ma_me_bauru.pdf: 3302258 bytes, checksum: 2c1ee8172b9f9a2895d7593b6bfac013 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-07T20:20:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 mercaldi_ma_me_bauru.pdf: 3302258 bytes, checksum: 2c1ee8172b9f9a2895d7593b6bfac013 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A proposta desta pesquisa é o estudo da joia contemporânea a partir do recorte estabelecido entre a primeira exposição de joias contemporâneas, em 1961, em Londres, os fatos e eventos importantes até os anos de 2010 que constroem o conceito e a abrangência da joalheria contemporânea. Essa investigação foi constituída por meio de estudos que observaram a joalheria no âmbito internacional, principalmente por meio dos ¬desdobramentos que tiveram curso na Europa e que influenciaram, de certa maneira, sua disseminação e estruturação como um campo consolidado, tanto de pesquisa como de práticas projetuais. Nesse sentido buscamos conceituar e definir a nomenclatura joia contemporânea, mesmo diante de contradições encontradas, porém vimos que ela se configura como uma prática abrangente e que estabelece diálogos e relações com campos como arte, artesanato, design e moda. A abrangência e a pluralidade no enfoque da joalheria contemporânea nos levaram à sua contextualização histórica e às questões do adorno e a relação destes com o corpo no contemporâneo. Por meio dessa delimitação, somada às funções do objeto a partir da teoria do design e da análise do objeto estudadas na cultura material, estabelecemos abordagens de análise de joias estrangeiras e nacionais, explicitando as inter-relações existentes entre elas, bem como os conceitos, critérios e características que apontam a joia contemporânea como elemento construtor de linguagem, passível de ser identificado e analisado. / The intention of this research is the study of contemporary jewelry from it’s first exhibition in 1961 in London, key facts and events to the years 2010 that contributed to build the concept and scope of contemporary jewelry. This research was stated by studies that observed the jewelry at an international level, mainly through the developments that took place in Europe and that influenced in some way, its dissemination and structuring as much as a consolidated research field as a projective practices. In this sense we seek to conceptualize and define the contemporary jewelry nomenclature, even having encountered contradictions, but we saw that it is configured as a comprehensive practice that establish dialogues and relations with fields such as art, craft, design and fashion. The scope and plurality in the contemporary jewelry approach led us to their historical context and the adornment issues and their relationship with the body in the contemporary time. Through this delimitation added to the object functions from the theory of design and object analysis studied in material culture, we established foreign and national jewelry analysis approaches, explaining the interrelationships between them, as well as the concepts, criteria and characteristics that point at contemporary jewelry as construct language element, which can be identified and analyzed.

The impulse to beautifying clothing through acts of adornments or embellishments is an innate characteristic of humans. The added decorative details are used for identification and visual communication by the wearer and comprehension and visual appreciation by the viewer. This thesis investigates the recent attention to female modesty, labeled as the Modesty Movement--the community that has developed around the apparel segment of the Movement and the framework of the behavior encompassing the participants within Movement. Additionally, the thesis focuses on adornment through the lens of textile/surface design (embellishment) specific to the Greater Middle East and the northern provinces of India and its application to modest apparel. Surface design is defined as manipulation of a textile beyond the woven construction, in this context it is applied to women’s apparel that covers the head and chest. Through a series of experiments using light, sound and motion the thesis examines how the use of of adornment simultaneously conveys identity and conceals the wearer.

This master thesis focuses on body modifications, mainly tattooing. The aim is to present the tattooing in a broader context and show its link to many aspects of people's lives that was evident especially in traditional tribal societies before the colonization era. The attention is paid to the Maori culture and the Marquesas Islands because their tattoos used to have high art value and formed the inseparable part of the inhabitants' lives. At the same time it describes the up-to-date situation in the western culture, where the body modification is very popular. It also mentions the current tattoo projects happening in the Czech Republic. Information are taken from several books available in Czech, especially the work written by Martin Rychlík "Tetování, skarifikace a jiné zdobení těla" and many electronic books in English. Information about the tattoo and body art news comes from the websites where the interested people meet and write their observations and articles about the present events. The conclusion shows that body modifications and body adornments are as old as a mankind. They appear in all cultures and do not have only the aesthetic function. They are the important source of information about social position, family relation, wealth, past experience, etc. Tattoos and the other body...