Mira Kim MFA

"The research into the theoretical aspects of context in art and my practical art process went hand in hand. Both my artwork and theoretical understanding of context evolved throughout the thesis semester. From early on I worked mainly with high-context images and text from newspaper clippings and magazines. I chose these types of media because the information they contain reflects heavily on societal issues. For example, an advertisement clipping may contain information about how a society views the world and the educational conditioning the advertiser wants to push onto the consumer. The manipulation of high-context materials makes it possible to stimulate a reprocessing of information, and allows for the opportunity to change the observer's perception.

I wanted to work with as many aspects of context as possible within my collection. I found that I could manipulate the images in a number of ways. For example, deconstruction has the potential to highlight certain areas of an image and the mixture of images creates interesting contrasts of both color and information. Working with multiple points-of-view played an important role in the creation of the forms: Observing a piece from a certain angle, utilizing the front and back of a brooch, as well as angling the form to create multiple faces all allowed for the manipulation and control of the high-context information contained within the images and text."