"The Waiting room": a written accompaniment to the thesis exhibition

Abstract

The following paper is in support of the Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at the Nickle Arts Museum, The University of Calgary, September 6th, 1991. The exhibition contains an installation and various mixed media works. The paper will discuss component parts of the Thesis Exhibition, possible associations the works may have, along with the sources from which the works are derived. These sources include artists who have made reference to or derived their work from occult interests such as magic and alchemy, the history of the occult, the integration of magic into daily life in certain cultures, and superstition and ritual. I have chosen to make reference in my visual art work to these various sources because I feel they in one way or another deal with death and the acceptance of death. The visual art work that will be in the Nickle Arts Museum refers to death on many levels; physical, emotional and spiritual.