Tristan Perrotti MFA Visual Studies Thesis 2023
This project explores the representation of the body, aging, and identity in art, focusing on the historical precedents and contemporary significance of figural painting in the context of evolving conceptions of self and temporality. Drawing on examples from diverse periods and artistic traditions, I have developed a triptych of paintings which combine various different styles and aesthetics to convey motion, both through space and psychological time. Through the lens of fluid temporality, I examine the complexities of memory and perceptions of self, challenging traditional linear constructs of time and their implications for how we view ourselves through different phases of our lives. We are both the same person we were as children, and also drastically different. Those identities are sometimes enmeshed so tightly as to be indistinguishable, and other time as vastly different as states of matter. This thesis paper is available in both English and Latin.