Date of Award
Spring 5-3-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Studies
First Advisor
Zach Nader
Second Advisor
Andrew Demirjian
Academic Program Adviser
Andrew Lund
Abstract
Time’s Radiant Keepers is a body of work comprising paintings, ceramic sculptures and video. Through these materials, my work emphasizes a tactile, embodied relationship between people and the virtual worlds they inhabit. I build on the idea of contending with the screen as a sculptural surface - one whose texture, form and objecthood we may look at, rather than simply look through. My formal inquiries are anchored in a rich narrative world. Drawing from state sponsored documentary films, feature films, and familial anecdotes from the 1950’s-1970’s in India, my paintings chronicle the emergence of the image of the urban, working woman in a newly independent India. They feature female subjects who were seen to epitomize the balance between tradition and modernity, as they entered industrial work environments while espousing a traditional femininity in their outward appearance. My paintings show them absorbed in their daily tasks, interacting with technological apparatus like microscopes and speakers - moments where they occupy both a physical environment and a virtual one. My ceramic sculptures approach this idea of mixing physical worlds with virtual ones through material experiments with clay and video. Also anchored in the female body, they present forms that mix soft curves and lines that evoke the body with the precise cuts and openings of technological devices. Embedded with small, glimmering openings containing moving images, they stand with one foot in physical sculptural space and one foot in virtual media space.
Recommended Citation
Kesavan, Tara Aliya, "Time's Radiant Keepers" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1213