Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 2000 POD Margaret Slinker Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Slinker, Margaret, "POD" (2000). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The College of Imaging Arts and Sciences In Candidacy for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS POD By Margaret Helen Pfahl Slinker November 2000 APPROVALS Department Chairperson: Rich Tannen Date: ----=--1---,Lf-il--:7f-I--=--(}{)---",--- I 7 I, Margaret Helen Pfahl Slinker, prefer to be contacted each time a request for reproduction is made. I may be reached at the following address: 7604 Beach Road Wadsworth, Ohio 44281 November 2000 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My heartfelt gratitude to Alan Kwok, Kelly Cornell, Ho-Jeong Jeong, Scott Place and Erinlee O'Sullivan for being there for each other, and for myself, as we all struggled with our individual searches. I am most thankful for my loving parents, who have continued to support my studies and my choices. They have made this possible and I am ever in their debt. in CONTENTS APPROVALS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS v-vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. PERSONAL BACKGROUND 2 3. HISTORICAL REFERENCES 4 4. HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS 16 5. EVOLUTION OF THE WORK 22 6. APPROACH AND PROCEDURE 25 7. CONCLUSION 34 SOURCES CONSULTED 36 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Cycladic, Statuette of a Woman, ca. 2700-2600 B.C. (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 4 2. Constantin Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1923 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) 5 3. Alberto Giacometti, Femme de Venise I, Unknown (Art Gallery of Ontario) 6 4. Henry Moore, Maquette for UNESCO Reclining Figure, Unknown (Art Gallery of Ontario) 7 5. Barbara Hepworth, Three Standing Forms, 1964 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery) 9 6. Jean Hans Arp, Manicure, 1930 (The Art Institute of Chicago) 9 7. Jean Hans Arp, Figure Mythique, 1950 (Musee d'art comtemporain de Montreal) 9 8. Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept, Nature Series, 1960-1962 10 9. Alexander Calder, The Spinner, 1966 (Walker Arts Center) 10 10. Isamu Noguchi, Grey Sun, 1967 (Smithsonian American Art Museum) 11 11. John Chamberlain, Kroll, 1961 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery) 11 12. Louise Bourgeois, Spring, 1949 (National Gallery of Art) 11 13. Eva Hesse, Untitled or Not Yet, 1966 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) 12 14. Anish Kapoor, Turning the World Inside Out, 1995 (SBMA) 13 15. Nancy Graves, Urbscolumna, 1981 (Albright-Knox Art Gallery) 13 16. Graham Marks, #3, 1986 14 v. 17. Photograph of Rick Hirsch 14 18. Richard Hirsch, Ceremonial Cup, 1994 14 19. Richard Hirsch, Altar Bowl, 1998 15 20. Image of Rick Hirsch Working 15 21. Ming Fay, Nectarine, 1982 17 22. Ming Fay, Cayenne Pepper, 1990 17 23. Ming Fay, Williams Pear, 1983 17 24. Ming Fay, Broadway Windows Installation, ca. 1985 18 25. Ming Fay, Clam, 1979 18 26. Keisuke Mizuno, Forbidden Fruit, 1999 19 27. Keisuke Mizuno, Forbidden Fruit, 1998 19 28. Keisuke Mizuno, Forbidden Fruit, 1998 19 29. Keisuke Mizuno, Forbidden Fruit, 1998 19 30. Ken Price, Big Load, 1988 20 31. Margaret Slinker, Untitled, 1994 22 32. Margaret Slinker, Janus, 1994 22 33. Margaret Slinker, Gilded, 1994 22 34. Margaret Slinker, Doubt, 1994 22 35. Margaret Slinker, The Space of a Thought, 1996 22 36. Margaret Slinker, Sketch, 1996 23 37. Margaret Slinker, a)Untitled #9, b) detail, Untitled #9, 1997 23 38. Margaret Slinker, a)Untitled #4, b) detail, Untitled #4 1997 26 39. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #10, b) detail, Untitled #10, 1997 27 vi. 40. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #8, b) detail, Untitled #8, 1997 28 41. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #6, b) detail, Untitled #6, 1997 29 42. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #l,b) detail, Untitled #1, 1997 30 43. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #2, b) detail, Untitled #2, 1997 31 44. Margaret Slinker, a) Untitled #1 1, b) Untitled #1 1, c) detail, Untitled #11, 1997 32 45. Margaret Slinker, Untitled #5, 1997 33 vn. You must do the thing that you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis began as a journey into the visual investigation of the ancient goddess worship of Neolithic times and, in conclusion, traveled to a much larger place. This place existed further back into mankind's history than the goddess worship of 7000 B.C. and most likely spawned it. Perhaps this trip was spurred on by the events in my family and personal of the past five years. Perhaps it was during the simplification of the ancient goddess form and all that was attributed to her powers that I was moved forward. Either way, it was a long, hard, unforgettable journey. Sometimes we touch the edge of truth and we glimpse it's shadow as it teases away around yet another corner. We know it is there but we cannot firmly grasp it and hold it up in front of the scientific community for their scrutiny and repeatable tests. Like the odor of night lilacs, it can overcome us with its sweetness, but then disappear on a breeze. We can recognize it's existence and feel it's essence, but it escapes our collection and scientific identification. Yet, we as humans still attempt to grasp at the fleeting truth. The golden ratio and the human preferential response to forms divided into thirds and sevenths are such attempts that, though interesting, seem to be very minuscule findings in comparison to human intuition about truth in form. Beyond form, humans have intuited their own existence, it's meaning and it's end, or lack thereof, for as long as we have had recorded history. Gods, goddesses, religions, cultures, rituals, and beliefs have been established as a way of explaining our existence, comforting humankind, communicating with higher powers and giving us the promise of an afterlife. Are we in a continuous cycle of being? Is the examination of the overlapping nature of inner and outer cycles a hint? Can we look to those life forms that we evolved alongside of and find some answers? My thesis asks these questions. CHAPTER 2 PERSONAL BACKGROUND There are many aspects of my personal background that contributed to my thesis body of work. The most pervading one is my endless curiosity about the nature of life itself. I am in endless awe of life and the layers of cycles, the overlaps, the rise and falls therein. The seasonal changes continue to strike me as miracles as they unfold in front of me, each one eliciting certain emotions, memories, and a bittersweet sense of time passing by. Every animal life, from an ant to a human, inspires me to respect the being of the creature, and I find myself unable to squash a bug, instead trying to relocate it, life intact. It is in the very fiber of my being to protect life, especially life that exists without a human voice. A love for the natural world and its infinite array of form, texture, color, gesture, and truth has influenced my work. A walk in the woods is just above visiting great museums for the level of awe that it inspires. A surf-polished rock, a flower bud about to burst open, twisted pieces of wood, roots, a seedpod, bones, stones and shells are some of the many naturally-occurring objects that I look to for information on form and truth. There exists a rightness, an energy within these things, that I continue to search for in my own work. I believe that my intense interest in the natural sciences stems from this same curiosity and reverence for the natural world and living creatures. Geology, chemistry and most of all, biology, are areas that I continue to hold an interest in after studying them to various degrees. These areas of study are all an examination of the inner workings of natural science, investigating plants, animals and mother earth herself. We find cycles layered upon cycles in all of these areas, from subatomic particles to the most intricate forms of life. From my youth on an Ohio farm to the present day, I am driven to investigate the natural world around me in an attempt to understand the way things work and the internal structures that support those workings. I often look at the internal structures of nuts, pods, stems and leaves. I have always been attracted to skeletons and bones, finding their forms elegant and meaningful. Forming clay from a plowed field, weaving together and forts and structures from reeds from a swamp or grasses from the fields building fallen limbs-I have long had a desire to explore and manipulate my natural surroundings. My studies of the physical sciences led to study of the mostly intangible science of psychology. It was here that I concentrated on the psychology of human development, behavior and the psychology of personality. Theories of motivation and learning were of particular interest as I pressed to learn about why humans do what they do and why they become who they are and what factors affect both. This study seemed to press closer to the idea of a soul, the chi, an inner life force that sustains and individuates us. It is the intuitive and, at times, academic separation of the outer physical body from the inner spiritual life force and the implied separate life cycles of each that is referred to in my thesis body of work.