Kara Hall MFA Applied Craft + Design Thesis 2021

Refuge: Building Ecological Resilience

We are in the midst of a sixth extinction, one caused by human activity. How can we build ecological resilience in the lands we inhabit and reverse this entropy? Ecological relationships can be mended through small adjustments in our collective thinking and art has the power to bring attention to these non-human perspectives. When we queer our notions of conservation strategy to embrace systems thinking, we can look to the past for inspiration for the future while reckoning with the significant changes that have occurred in our disturbed ecologies. By reframing our ideology of “nature” to be part of our ecology rather than separate from it, we become stewards of our lands, active members of restoring these ecosystems rather than further degrading them. Reconstructing our values from favoring monetary wealth to embracing the richness of biological diversity rewards us with living in a more complex, vibrant, and exquisite world. Viewing the world through non-human eyes is critical to reimagine a future we exist in, as we depend on our ecological counterparts for our very survival. Refuge tackles these nuanced and complex ideas through a transdisciplinary approach combining art, pedagogy and ecology. The installation is designed as a ruminative and intimate multi-sensorial experience which allows it to have multiple accessible interactions with it’s audience. It combines 2D, 3D and 4D materials which are curated to focus on the individual objects occupying the space, while also existing as a whole catalogue.

Kara Hall MFA Applied Craft + Design Thesis 2021

MFA ACD Lecture: Steve Badanes

Paul Wong

MFA ACD Lecture: Doug Browe

Sonya Clark

MFA ACD Lecture: Elmar Heimbach

MFA ACD Lecture: Donald Fortescue

MFA ACD Lecture: Jonathan Barnbrook

AKIKO BUSCH : MFA AC+D LECTURE

Alex Isley

Allyson Mitchell

ALI KHALIFA : MFA AC+D LECTURE

Aly Khalifa

AMY WHITAKER: MFA AC+D LECTURE

Andrea Bowers

Andy Brayman

Arthur Hash

CraftPerspectives Lecture: Chris Taylor

DEB WILLIS : MFA AC+D LECTURE (Co-Sponsor Newspace Center for Photography)

Del Harrow

MFA ACD Lecture: Emily Pilloton

Gary Nabhan

Gerhardt Knodel

Hazel Clark

Joyce Scott

Lew Oliver

Liz Lambert

Luis Camnitzer

CraftPerspectives Lecture: Maria Elena Buszek

Derrick Jensen

Mary Smull

Matthias Pliessnig

Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher

Natalia Allen

Natalie Chanin

CraftPerspectives Lecture: Nikki McClure

Paul Mathieu

Po Shun Leong

Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey: Heath Ceramics

Saki Mafunikwa

Shashi Caan

Steve Badanes

Susan S. Szenasy

VICTOR MARGOLIN : MFA AC+D LECTURE

William Deresiewicz

Zahid Sardar

Ben Lignel

Christine Lee