Preferred Name
Mia Greenwald
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-12-2023
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
School of Art Design and Art History
Advisor(s)
Allyson Taylor
Rob Mertens
Hannah Sions
Abstract
This monograph accompanies the MFA thesis exhibition, Heretic Territories: spells for fracture. The show uses video, weaving, clay, and bacterial/fungal bodies in three main bodies of work: Inter; Lost, remain, fracture; and For, Of Them. The pieces, and the relationship between them, explore themes of magic, the body, and land in contradiction and opposition to colonial and capitalist structures. I approach the artificial hierarchies that subjugate people, non-human creatures, and land while trying not to replicate the mistakes of posthumanist scholarship that bypasses the fact that not all people are afforded full access to the category of the human. Within this, I use my body– embodiment as a tool for connection and unlearning through somatics, trans embodiment, and connection to land. I also research the era of witch trials in pre modern Europe, as an anchor point to explore the development of capitalism and colonialism. Finally, I explore magic, in history, as an ontological resistance to the hierarchies of colonialism, as a reverential way of connecting to place in the face of climate catastrophe
Recommended Citation
Greenwald, Mia, "Heretic territories: Spells for fracture" (2023). Masters Theses, 2020-current. 205.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029/205
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Ceramic Arts Commons, Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons
