Date of Award
Spring 4-29-2019
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Art and Design
First Advisor
Christina A. West
Second Advisor
Wesley Harvey
Third Advisor
Jill Frank
Abstract
Class Clown is an exhibition of ceramic sculptures that uses a campy humor to remedy a distinct lack of unencumbered silliness within the traditionally serious-minded art gallery setting. “Class Clown” contains a double meaning: it refers to a student who disrupts the classroom through comical behavior, as well as “class” in the socioeconomic sense. Using an overly saccharin, kitsch aesthetic, this work sardonically investigates ideas about art that circulate in the academic setting. Examining and dissecting these systems provides an opportunity for my work to comically criticize whatever space it inhabits. In doing so, it ironically becomes part of the exclusive systems it is intended to lampoon. Combining the highly refined aesthetics and technical mastery of the medium with the absurd, my sculptures depict vignettes that highlight the role of humor as a tool for communicating about art.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/14386340
Recommended Citation
Adamson, Andrew, "Class Clown." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2019.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/14386340