This research project studies ways that space shapes identity by examining a contemporary sculpture using a multicultural theory. The author focuses on analyzing the role of physical space in the construction of cultural identity across time by studying Mariana Castillo-Deball’s No Solid Form Can Contain You (2010) through Gloria Anzaldua’s Nepantilism theory.

Article is an introduction to Artnodes issue No. 26, “AI, Arts & Design: Questioning Learning Machines" which addresses the question: Does generative and machine creativity in the arts and design represent an evolution of “artistic intelligence,” or is it a metamorphosis of creative practice yielding fundamentally distinct forms and modes of authorship?

Article reflecting on over ten years of conducting and collecting interviews with and by women artists of African descent in a variety of formats (e.g. narrative arts writing, academic research and documentary film/video) to note the specific ways that artists’ interviews help to rewrite art-historical narratives.

Work of art in Threads, wood, foam, plaster by artist Kyung Hee IM as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Entanglement"

Work of art in Threads, wood, foam, plaster by artist Kyung Hee IM as part of a 2021 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Entanglement"

My current work investigates visual meditations on water and its connection to the human experience. Through observation and reflection, my process allows me to make associative connections with water’s powerful metaphorical qualities. Water’s multiplicity of meaning is vast. It is a complex force of nature that begs to be explored through various modes of thinking. Mindfulness combined with the act of discovery and adaptation allows my imagery to evolve organically. Working between drawing and printmaking, I create variable series of artworks, that oscillates between mimicry and abstraction as a contemplation of our human relationship and natural forces.

Since my youth in Ukraine, I have been inspired by the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, who went to outer space in April 1961. Since then I have been imagining the fragments of an unknown space that is divided into a variety of different felt locations. I am interested in envisioning fractured terrains, where the intrusion of sharp elements interact with a soft transparent and atmospheric space. I want to create a sense of discord as a metaphorical reflection on the absurd, political situation in Ukraine where I am originally from. For me, navigating or transitioning from one imaginary space to another through the act of making painting feels equivalent to experiencing a new place for the first time.

As we travel through life, we lose pieces of ourselves. It’s inevitable. Yet we are more than the sum of our parts. These pieces can be cast aside, lost to the wind or imply left behind. They can also be stitched back together, forming a patchwork quilt of sorts. The world is constantly changing, and now more than ever we live in a time of uncertainty. So, I feel the need to stitch together my reality. I am a Maker, and I choose to make a reflection of the world I want to inhabit; a world of my own making.

Work of art of tea bags, bed sheet, book remnants, string, steel by artist Traci O’Dwyer as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Of My Own Making".

Photography, as a way of recording, is often high-definition and highly descriptive. Therefore, photography has a close relationship with visual perception. In my soft and abstract photographic images, the particularity of time and place is deliberately diluted, and the traditional objects in the photographic images are eliminated to challenge the viewer to locate themselves in relation to the photographs. The ambiguity of the photograph stimulates the viewer's self-consciousness to the greatest extent, while also spurring profound examination of the particular ways one expects photographs to affect them.

My background in fashion relied on the use of sewing machines as tools to create garments made of new materials. My current artmaking has evolved away from the body and functionality to become relief sculptures in cloth. This work is the embodiment of moments in time and space that have stopped me mid-stride, compelling me to closely examine the details. As a fine artist, I translate these observations of nature into my art by using a needle and thread to hand stitch on reclaimed cloth. I invite the viewers to pause, wonder, and think about their place in the world.

I am an interdisciplinary artist whose work bridges mental health, body dysmorphia, and the visual arts together through sculptures, paintings, performances, and large installations. I work with traditional and nontraditional materials through a manual and digital process to physically represent my realities of living with body dysmorphic disorder. I use padding, paper, and other fibrous objects as metaphors for the flesh and manipulate these materials in numerous ways to create exaggerations of the body.

Work of art of Mixed Media Immersive Installation by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, crochet, bronze, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, crochet, resin, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Glass, paper, fibers, crochet, resin, ink, paint by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections".

Work of art of Paper, fibers, paint, ink by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections". Recordings of daily setbacks or successes with Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

Work of art of Paper, fibers, paint, ink by artist Heather Hoskins, as part of a 2020 MFA Exhibition, entitled "Visceral Reflections". Recordings of daily setbacks or successes with Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

With this work, I investigate the mental and physical toll of the past and the dissonance that often occurs as we age through the use of experimental cameraless techniques. By placing photographic materials directly against my skin during performative acts of self-care, I document my body as I reflect on the damage it suffered as a result of my childhood as a competitive gymnast, which is being exacerbated by the effects of age and time. The resulting photographs are a poetic self-reflection on my physical form that embodies my struggle to understand and accept my deteriorating body.

This work is a developing portrait of women workers who are involved in labor rights advocacy within the context of the maquiladora (assemblage factory) industry in Mexico. I have traveled to do research in Mexico by making photographs and through collecting recorded testimonies from the women workers I come to meet through an organization called the Comité Fronterizo de Obreras. The resulting artwork I make includes photographs, handmade books, video, sculpture and works on paper. Ultimately, my translation of the empowerment and stories of these women workers into works of art are at the center of my practice.

Brachaid is a collection of photographs that explore the blindness of our perspective that is informed by images. By photographing peripheral landscapes like wastewater processing facilities, the edges of temporary streams, and stormwater basins, the project uses the landscape and its perceived neutrality to foreground how the production of images constructs our perception. The work in Brachaid emphasizes the production of images, from subject and framing choices to the use of imaging software, to demonstrate that such production is regularly and radically obscured in most of the images we consume, and that this same structure exists in our lived reality.