Extensional Domestic: A Self-Indulgent, Physic Excavation of Home and Art

The Extensional Domestic relies on a psychological exploration of dwelling to dissect my visual arts graduate research and corresponding projects. Traversing experimentally and anecdotally, I use the overlaying theme of domesticity to question the meeting points of apathy, indulgence, memory, and self-destruction within the intimacy of private space. Using my upbringing in the suburban American Midwest as a key to understanding the themes of my graduate work, I position the idea of home as a site for emotional learning, and unpack the psychological and material intersections within my arts practice.

As individual projects are contextualized through contemporary material analysis, and diaristic omissions, I also call on canonical artworks, artists, philosophical and literary works to situate my practice. Esoteric architectural and psychological philosophies of spatial interaction are used to symbolically unpack the greater themes of my work. These examples intersect with storytelling and contemporary material investigation as a way to generate a dialogue about the contemporary commodification of domestic space. The presented research at once allows insight into personal projects, but also positions the various constructs of dwelling as tools for material awareness and self-psychoanalysis.