2017 | DOWNSIDE-UP: MFA Thesis, Part II

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*Read Article: The Surreal Self-Portraits of Brianna Angelakis

   Via Hi-Fructose / Published 4.4.2017

Artist Statement:

Time, energy, and dedication manifest in tangible piles, performing as active agents within a nonsensical world. Through the loss of linear perspective, space and time adrift, permitting the logic of the unconscious to unfold. The organized chaos of the unconscious creates a paradox as a pattern of adornments and embellishments balances and outweighs sense. Without the judgement of reason, beauty possesses the ability to stimulate the unconscious. Transfixed by beauty, I remain stationary amid the nonsensical world. Through a metamorphosis, my past failures transform into elements of beauty, as I become a fantastical monument to my vexation, acting within the spectacle of the absurd. 

Through the initial form of crumpled paper, a metaphor for failure, I begin the exploration of my transformation. Placed upon my head as a crown for my unconscious, the natural lines, ridges, and edges within the crumpled paper determines the ultimate placement for my drawings, paintings, and still life textiles. Each element is drawn individually from life and placed through a system of collage. Combining pieces of my ripped, unraveled, cut, and crumpled drawings and paintings into singular compositions, I compose a nonsensical world where fruitless attempts become fragments of beauty. 

On View: MFA Thesis Exhibition at University Gallery at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL