The Detritus of Our Lives

Abstract

For my honors thesis I planned and executed a durational performance driven installation art piece. I had had this idea of spending a long time in a room and writing on the walls as an art piece swirling around in my head for a year or so, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to execute it. This work was inspired by 1970s feminist performance art and modern installation art. My own performance pieces have been inspired by artists like Marina Abramovic, Carolee Schneeman, and Yoko Ono since learning about them. Though this piece was not about feminism specifically, I admire and seek to replicate the raw honest expression of identity that these artists achieved in their work. For this piece I was especially inspired by Schneeman’s 1973 piece Up to and Including Her Limits. In terms of installation art, I was looking at the work of Yayoi Kusama. Kusama is best known for her intricately layered infinity rooms which create the illusion of never ending space through patterns and reflections. I wanted my writing on the wall to take into consideration the contents of the words, but also words as physical decoration. In terms of literary influence, I am inspired in style and subject matter by philosophy and poetry. I’m drawn to the aphoristic style of philosophers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. As for subject matter I draw from the confessional style of contemporary poetry, particularly authors like Sharon Olds, Brenna Twohy, and Derrick Austin. The final influence for this piece is my own past work.