What to Value

Date of Award

June 2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Art

Advisor(s)

Margie Hughto

Keywords

art, ceramic, ceramics, object, studio art, visual art

Abstract

What to Value is an exploration of creating a visual language based on seeking a bal-ance between my cultural heritage as a South Korean and western contemporary art. From this perspective, the project perceives a certain flow from western contemporary art such as deskilling, materialism and abstraction while emphasizing the values of skills from ceramic art history. I argue that even though ‘deskilling’ has become a trend in contemporary art, having or perceiving fundamental skills are still necessary to plan out the art work for effectively communicating the concept to the audience. I researched artists who have worked in this spectral: Ai Weiwei, Neil Brownsword, Steven Young Lee, John Chamberlain and Sol Lewitt. The artists either present their work with their articulate skills or sources and the cul-turally rich tradition of art history to their political/personal perspective through the lens of contemporary art. I quote from the writing Tradition and the Individual Talent by T.S. Eliot. The author argues that the understanding of tradition and history is essential for making con-temporary artwork. In my practice of this project, I seek an equilibrium between my new ex-perience in America and my cultural understanding of the ideas and skills of past artists. I give a contemporary voice and sensibility to traditional elements through the preservation, deconstruction and transformation of historical patterns and shapes. I reclaim and re-purpose my failures, breathing new energy into the collected salvages and reinterpreting their value.

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