Emerging Rhythms

Considering art as both a metaphor for place and a place in itself, this thesis project investigates the organic and fabricated rhythms in everyday life and art making. The project’s concern is the effect of repeating seemingly simple gestures associated with the minutiae of everyday life. The rhythmic act of walking through place is a foundation and preliminary activity for the resulting paintings, drawings, and sound work. Echoing the action of walking, the rhythmic and temporal quality of music provides additional focus and inspiration. The works in the project present place from an aerial view, and considering the writings of philosopher Michel de Certeau, explore the complexities and tensions of representing absence, and creating intimacy in spite of an alienating view. The writings of sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre provide a context for analyzing rhythms and noticing difference. Repetition in sound is considered as a parallel to repetition in the visual. The music cognition researcher Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis outlines the phenomenon of semantic satiation, which is used as analogy to analyze the rhythmic nature of the work in the project. The work of artists Mark Bradford, Richard Long, and Roman Opałka are drawn on through their use of repetition, focus, and interactions with place. Artist Avis Newman’s writings influence discussions of the nature of the unbound, unframed form of the work in the thesis project. The unbound form of the work connects it back to notions of the everyday and its incessant nature. An interest in the everyday informs the thrust of the work, indicating the aim of the practice: to create work that eschews spectacle, elevates simplicity, and recognizes the significance of the ordinary.