Browsing by Author "Hampton, Mandy"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    To Cloak Empty Space
    (2017) Hampton, Mandy; Keathley, Mandy
    To sculpt is to cloak empty space in material. Like a balloon containing air, my sculptures give shape to empty spaces, while simultaneously concealing them. The experience of making a sculpture is like hiking up a mountain; both involve a challenge to solve, a physical engagement of the body, and a desire to discover something I have not seen before. I am interested in in a very real, tangible relationship to the earth through touch, play, and experimentation. Like a lab scientist, I seek to discover something meaningful which will push me along a path of invention toward a better understanding of the world. By cloaking empty space in tangible matter, I reveal the shell of new forms, but conceal internal, cavernous spaces. I filter space through my own body’s physicality, which necessitates an immersive process in the studio. Each sculpture expresses my phenomenological experience in the world; they are bending under the weight of chaos and decay, yet looking towards the future as a place of wonder, mystery, and possibility.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    UO Art 2017 MFA
    (University of Oregon, 2017) Department of Art, University of Oregon; Campbell, Andrew Douglas; Couch, Chelsea; Weng, Esther; Moore, Joe; Asahina, Lee; Hampton, Mandy; Morgan, Mary Margaret; Wallace, Meril; Linn, Ron
    This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of French literary critic and theorists Roland Barthes’ influential 1967 essay, The Death of the Author. In countless MFA critiques and seminars, artists have grappled with Barthes’ essay and its implications related to de-skilling, negation of authorial voice, and birth of the reader/viewer. Each of the nine artists included in the University of Oregon’s 2017 MFA Thesis Exhibition undoubtedly addresses the viewer, challenging audiences to explore new ways of thinking about and moving in the world through infiltration, translation, and humor. Yet in all of the artworks presented, the viewer “is born” not at the expense and death of the author, but through a shared insistence on the importance of the relationship between artist and viewer, artistic presence, and/or the laying bare of the production apparatus.