Phillip Thomas BFA General Fine Arts Thesis Spring 2015
Consumer Instinct and The Contemplative Life
The driving force behind this installation is the concept of the human condition and social interaction. Within this body of work, I examine the way myself and individuals within American society are shaped by institutional modes of thought. “Institutional” meaning the systems constructed within our society like public schooling and class structures. These institutions define and limit the potential of our society, and this work attempts to show this. I seeks to analyze how the individual and personas are created in these institutional frameworks, using masks as a representation for the problems that result from these systems. The scenes I have constructed are allegorical representations of American life, juxtaposed with masked figures as representations of the personas we wear.