University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Work for the masters degree

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Content Work for the Masters Degree
by
Christine Taber
A Thesis Presented To The
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the the Degree
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
August 1995
Christine Tuber
UNIVERSITY OF SO U TH ER N CALIFORNIA
TMK ORAOUATI SCHOOL
U N IV IR S irr SARK
LOS ANOKL1S. CALIFORNIA * 0 0 0 7
This thesis, written by
under the direction of k & r .. .Thesis Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
C - h £y~
MASTER OF FINE ARTS
D* * m
Date August 2^ , 1995
THESIS O
The present body of work has come about through the development of what began
as a gestural, abstract painting style. The change in environment and exposure to new
critical viewpoints that came about as a result of my entrance into graduate school
brought about a reassessment of the following: I) The intentions behind the work and 2)
The different possible readings of the work based on context and the history of the
medium. 1 realized that the former is very much effected by the latter and throughout my
course of study at USC I have attempted to make the work less ‘readable’: to reduce if
possible the ways it could be critically experienced. I have thus modified my methods
through what I felt the important concerns were conditioned by: the visual and physical
characteristics of the medium and the process of making the work.
Prior to my entrance into graduate school, the work I produced was done in oil
paint used in a manner heavily influenced by the abstract expressionists. Small
representational drawings and paintings were also completed. The work I am involved
with now has roots in, and continues to evolve from, the ideas developed through these
two methods of working. Through the process of working and experimenting with the
mediums, these ideas continue to evolve, generating the means for producing more work.
For my graduate work I have chosen not to work with representational imagery.
This is because when working from life {still life, model, etc.) my interest has always
been in how things are depicted rather than what is depicted. By dispensing with
representational imagery, my intent was to eliminate subject matter in order it) focus on
what I feel is a more important consideration: the visual articulation. I have always
regarded painting and drawing as perceptual exercises and problem solving processes
rather than, or perhaps in addition to being, illustrative tools.
1
The abstract paintings I made prior to graduate school were done in an effort to
allow my subconscious or intuition to have at least a partial say (along with chance) in
determining the resulting image. I felt that there was a certain honesty in the
spontaneous, unthought-out decisions made from moment to moment. Often things that
happened by chance presented challenges that required re-evaluation and then other,
conscious responses. In this respect, undetermined action and intuitive or formal
responses replaced actions determined by the goal of accurate representation. The
methods and decision making processes involved (which included certain procedures :
building, organizing, compiling, erasing, adding, subtracting, etc.) motivated me to make
art as much as the resulting imagery or object. I felt that any object I had performed any
process on would serve as a record of my decisions, and so would embody my beliefs in a
certain way. Therefore there seemed a kind of falsity in re-presenting them: Rather, I
was interested in making work that served performative I y '.
A major concern of mine has always been the possibility of a non- rational way of
working, of tapping into the subconscious (or a shared consciousness) and producing
work that did not solely function to represent a pre-conceived idea via illustration or
connotation. This is what appeals to me about abstract expressionism, as well as painting
and drawing in general as a means for producing work. These being the roots of my prior
methods and manner of working, the aspects of the work that continue to carry the
greatest emphasis are these:
1. The visual actuality of the work-what would amount to a literal description
2. The physical processes used in making the work
1 Performutively: I am referring to the grammatical application of this word. A performative
phrase, lor instance, would be “I promise." That is, the act of speaking the phrase performs its
(ask.
2
By focusing on these aspects of the work, that is. the actual construction or the
manipulation of materials involved, and the visual characteristics of the work, I have
attempted to produce work by non-re presentational means.
Two related interests continue to influence me in my search for a non-
represcntational way of working: the structure of music and the process involved in any
kind of physical and/or mental labor. My interest in music is in its non-linguistic
properties. Its structure, the arrangement of units within that structure, and rhythm itself
as well as complications and variations within rhythm (in other words, repetition that
metamorphoses) do not point to anything outside of themselves.
By limiting my attention to certain physical processes for making the work I have
provided parameters within which and through which the work can be generated. ‘Art’
work = work: Problem solving, moving things from place to place, building things or
anything requiring physical exertion, especially the use of the hands, and/or tasks or
problems requiring mental work in a visual/spatial sense are all activities I relate strongly
to my art making activity. In these kinds of labors I can set my body and mind to work,
to perform in some capacity without necessarily thinking about the usefulness of the task
or operation. I become absorbed in the activity -- this directly relates to my process of
abstract painting, and also to other tasks I enjoy such as pottery, bicycling, and my job as
a baker. Common to all these activities are perception with the senses through the use of
the body and activity that often requires repetitive action.
I have drawn several assumptions from the affinities 1 believe my work shares
with labor and music. In both cases some kind of energy is being structured or routed.
The formal organization of a painting (in the active, verbal sense — when a painter is
organizing it) is labor that gives form to this energy. The painting itself is the resulting
3
trace of the artist’s decisions. Labor in other forms is done for praetical reasons that
focus the worker's attention on an outcome that is separate from the activity. Unlike the
activity involved in its construction, and the temporal quality of music, a painting or
drawing supposedly exists, at its state of completion, as an object: a separate individual
‘‘ at is unchanging from moment to moment’.
A painting or drawing that draws the viewer in, either by demanding close
physical proximity in order to distinguish detail or nuance (which requires some amount
of perceptual sensitivity) or by engaging, requiring entrance into the work itself via the
ga/e into a perceived space, establishes a relationship with the viewer that is temporal
and dependent on that interaction. The work in this way is unstable, relative. At the
same time the painting remains a physically flat object that can hang on a wall.
I should note that the ways in which I’ve described the ‘viewer’s’ relationship to
the work can only be based on my own experience with the work as a ‘viewer’, of one
who is physically engaged in the making of the work and at the same time engaged in a
visual manner. My effort to create some kind of interactive, temporal relationship with a
possible viewer for the work may stem from a wish to involve him or her in the
experience of making the work.
This seeming contradiction has been a constant concern of mine. That is, the
painting endeavor as a process whereby one manipulates and changes relationships,
adding and subtracting layers of medium (pencil, paint, etc.) to an object that serves as a
record of that interaction. A painting then is, as a result of that action or work, a
perceptual experience taking place in the mind of the viewer. The painting is an object. I
' For the sake of argument, I agree that this is even conceptually an impossibility since, when
taking into consideration the viewer, every work of art is constantly changing - and although 1
feel this issue is relevant, it isn’t what is implied here - I am simply describing the physical
characteristics of ‘art objects'.
4
80
can scratch it with a stick , leave my trace on it as it' it were a wall. It can he no more
than the record of a number of actions. A painting is a subjective experience, i may
allow my mind to wander across its surface (as its borders slip out of view) or to enter
into it as I willingly suspend my disbelief. My approach to painting has at times involved
both conscious and unconscious attention, in varying degrees, to these shifting
relationships with the work.
My entrance into graduate school and the ensuing two years have prompted me to
evaluate and clarify the intentions and concerns involved in my approach, and in turn
have produced some change in primary areas. Two things in particular have motivated
these changes: the diversity of things that can be done to a painting or drawing has made
me aware of the choices I make and my constant efforts to unify the image. Also, I
became aware that I was displaying, simulating, referring to abstract expressionism —
what I once believed was spontaneous and intuitive seemed rote and rehashed.
The various changes that my work has undergone undoubtedly reflect the
influence of some of the new bodies of thought that I have been exposed to, as well as the
clarification and re-articulation of issues and interests that have remained with me.
Through my course of study, I have experimented with various attempts at
making my working process less subjective. This was in part due to my beliefs about
intent. 1 hold that intention is an operation of the self, and sublimates the activity to the
achievement of a desired effect, an ulterior motive. Although one may say that every
5
painting is started with an intent (if only to "make a painting"). My intent is to forget
intent' . These realizations led to an interest in generating work that did not include my
subjective decisions.
I found that attempts to make myself more objective made me very aware of my
subjectivity in much the same way that my machine-like action could never produce a
mechanical mark. The marks always retain a character that can be recognized as mine
and the imperfections make them very obviously human-made. I think this is an
important paradox: in a persons search for purity or perfection, one comes lace to face
with his or her own imperfections. The importance of this process is to become aware of
them, not to repress or remove them.
Both my interest in the work, the actual ‘mindless’ involvement in a medium, and
what I’ve hinted at in my various references to forgetting ‘intent’ and a kind of self
search are all connected to my interest in eastern religion and related philosophy. These
bodies of thought by no means form a strict foundation by which I live -- in fact my
attraction to them has primarily been in their non-didacticism, a quality I’d like my work
to share with them. If anything, both my work and these modes of interpretation are
important in that they provide a means for becoming aware of the constructs that I tend to
confuse with some kind of ideological ‘truth’.
The various forms of eastern thought, especially Buddhist and Taoist philosophy,
have introduced me to the idea that meditation is a method for placing oneself outside of
language by both removing an anticipated goal and focusing on one action — often
repeated. The focus on and repetition of one thing or action becomes non-verbal because
although the decision to use one action rather than another may be verbal (a conscious,
This idea was hinted at earlier when I mentioned becoming involved in the process without
regard to an exterior ‘end” .
6
rational act), that decision is determined only at the beginning and the process becomes
one of repetition, both actively and visually. The process is pre-determined, the outcome
is not. Repetition serves several functions in my work: it lends equanimity to the marks
or units being repealed. In this way it flattens out not only any hierarchical relationships
between these units but also the perceived linearity of time, both as experienced by me
and perceived by the viewer as a compilation without denotative distinctions. At the
same time, each mark and in turn the resulting compilation, because of the variation that
is unavoidable because of its band-made production, is unique and unforeseen.
A new influence, which is interesting in what I find to he points where it
intersects with many eastern ideas, is much of the contemporary philosophy that I've
been exposed to since entering graduate school. What has attracted me to the writings of
Jean-Praneios Lyotard is his description of libidinal energy. Libidinal energy is of course
associated with the sex drive, but the libido is only one form it takes. This stuff is that
which is given form by the ways in which we channel it. It exists in necessary
conjunction with and is only given distinction by these channels, for instance our
consciousness or social and cultural boundaries. These boundaries give it form, and so
do thought and action, much in the same way riverbeds, dams and sluices give form to
rivers — bodies of water .
Much like how the riverbed enables the river to exist, any limitation imposed on a
process generates work by giving form to the action. Providing a limitation enables
work. I think of the motivation to make or manipulate things as a particularly interesting
aspect of drive (energy) because in my own inclinations to perform tasks such as building
7
or drawing or even figuring oul simple equations in math. The process itself was
interesting and enjoyable although extremely frustrating. It was less frustrating, however,
when I became absorbed in the process and removed the goal.
The work I am now doing developed out of two ways of working. Both of these
bodies of work were done exclusively in either pencil or ink. In a group of small works. I
covered each surface evenly and methodically with small marks, the resulting amount of
which was determined by the size of the piece and the density of the application of the
marks, flic actual numerical amount is unimportant and would actually vary
tremendously between two ‘identical' pieces. The works in this group were done on
small wooden panels. In a group of larger pieces, small marks (lines) were used to
construct each piece, but a further step was taken of separating groups of marks into
slightly larger units, the size of which had been pre-delermined. The positioning of these
units was not pre-determined, however, so a decision was necessary in the placement of
each. This placing was subjective and intuitive, and each move was made in response to
the compilation of marks already existing on the surface. The work in this group were
completed on tracing paper and mylar, surfaces which appeal to me because of their
texture and translueency. My choice of marks in the work was also very important.
Many of the pieces are comprised rtf letter-sized lines. These ‘letters’, however, are not
coded and cannot be ‘read’ as words would, although much like the units within the
system of language, they operate only within the system that generates them. liach line
instead can be perceived as denoting a certain moment in time, but an unspecified one.
At the same lime it is a mark (action) which is repealed to cover the surface. In other
work I used a kind of cross-hatching that is characteristic of much representational
8
drawing, hul ‘the represented' is left out. This may also allude to some kind of illusionist
space but no specific space is represented. This ambiguity is heightened by the attention
drawn to the marks themselves.
After working on both surfaces, and also experimenting once again with paint, I
had an opportunity to use the space in the Lindhurst gallery for one week, which spurred
another ’work'. Over the course of four days I drew a hand around the entire gallery hy
covering a surface eighteen inches wide at eye level on the wall with pencil marks. There
were several things that I found interesting about taking on this project.
I had been searching, in a way, for an appropriate surface to work on. I felt that
since my work was so process oriented, to choose a surface ( I usually chose quite
traditional surfaces ) and then to apply marks to it resulted in a drawing on an object.
The construction involved in the building of the small panels that I had been working on
was a wonderful part of the process but it seemed a bit too separate from the task of
applying the marks to them. The resulting works also seemed too object-like, even if I
did like the intimacy of their si/e. F ;or this project I had the given space of the wall in
which to confine my obsessive mark-making. I made a certain number of choices
{establishing a few precepts — the width of the band, the height at which it would be
placed) and the end of the work was determined by the size of the gallery.
Also interesting to me was the fact that, with the exception of the breaks at the
doorways, the band ended at its beginning, so that it enclosed a space rather than filling
the surface of an object that was hung on the wall in that space. 1 was also faced, in
taking on the project, with a lime limitation. This required a tremendous investment of
time in the 96 hours that I had to finish the work. A large amount of discipline was also
9
required in order to see it through to completion. It was an experience that continues to
inform my thoughts about my work. Two other features of that work that are relevant
are the fact that it wasn't a ‘show of my work’ -- I left no indication in name that 1 had
done the work — and after the six days that the work was on the walls. I repainted the
gallery, covering over my traces. This erasure highlighted the transitory nature of the
work.
The thesis exhibition presented a different opportunity for presenting my work. A
tew factors had bearing on the way my work was exhibited, hirst, the show- look the
form of a group exhibition. The space that we collectively chose was to be shared by six
graduate students. This space constraint made an installation of the type done in
Lindhurst impractical. Instead, I chose a more traditional format for my work, to be
installed and then removed from the shared space. Second, the concept of a group thesis
show seemed to call tor work that embodied the culmination of two years of study. For
this reason, I chose a number of methods for producing work that I had previously
experimented with, and decided to complete four large scale pieces, incorporating each of
these methods.
Fach of the four pieces was executed on a piece of translucent mylar measuring
approximately 42” by 80", This material seemed a natural choice for the work not only
because it had a great working surface but because of its transluceney. The use of the
mylar itself thus implied a kind of depth, and the fact that light could pass through the
work and bounce off the wall behind it gave the work a character that was less physical
and object-like. The new, larger scale allowed the viewer, upon the closer inspection that
was promoted by the intricacy of the marks on the surface, to become absorbed by the
‘field’ of graphite or ink. Three of the pieces were done in pencil and one was done in
10
ink. using a rectangular rubber sta m p o f m y fingerprint. E ach translucent field o f m ark s
w a s p in n ed to the sam e long wall in the gallery. T h e arra n g e m e n t and p la c e m e n t o f the
w o rk on the wall w as o f particular im portance to me.
T h e thesis exhib itio n thus brought into physical and visual form the m ajo r
c o n c e rn s that h av e effected m y w ork since entering graduate school. By c h o o s in g and
im p o sin g m y o w n lim itations a nd ap p ly in g th e m to the m eth o d o f production, 1 create a
c h a n n e l for action {energy, drive) and the w ork involved b e c o m e s self-generating. In m y
sy ste m the units arc equal (and at the sam e time unequal in e a ch o n e 's im perfections) and
are c o m p ile d redundantly. T h e result of this addition is w ork that e v e n w ithin its strict
c o n d itio n s o f possibility contains a great deal o f variation. A lth o u g h the s h o w represents
a kind o f closure, the ideas behind the w o rk and the tw o years o f physical and m ental
in v o lv e m e n t that g rad u ate school has provided m e w ith will have great b earing on m y
future w ork.
11
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Asset Metadata

Creator Taber, Christine (author)

Core Title Work for the masters degree

School Graduate School

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Fine Arts

Degree Conferral Date 1995-08

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag fine arts,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor [Aldworth] (committee chair), Dudziak, Mary L. (committee member), Kizk, Ron (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-5240

Unique identifier UC11357729

Identifier 1376520.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-5240 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 1376520-0.pdf

Dmrecord 5240

Document Type Thesis

Rights Taber, Christine

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA