Thesis

MFA Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design, 2019

The thesis book I submitted as a requirement for my MFA program was 1,101 pages long: it contained a log of every word I had typed on my laptop for the two years that I was in school, as recorded by a continuously running keylogger software. 

This book, submitted in a 4-inch, three-ring, institutional blue binder, was meant to be many things (an act of uncomfortable transparency, a self-portrait, a subversion of bureaucratic requirement, etc), but primarily, it was meant to be a physical testament to the immensity of invisibilized labor that is done by marginalized bodies to navigate institutional systems - educational, governmental, and non-profit.

When asked to summarize my body of work, which includes curation, writing, and community activism, this thesis is a good introduction. I call myself a sculptor because I am interested in interrogating space and spacial experiences - physically, conceptually, and systemically. 

My studio work, specifically, attempts to physicalize the labor of unseen bodies, the silence of unarchived histories, and the stories lost to colonization and erasure.

Although all of the technical requirements of the thesis were met (table of contents, abstract, title page, copyright page, dedications, etc), they were all documented through the keylogging software, rendering them nearly illegible - a hope of making my labor immune to exploitation by an institution that deserved none of my labor.

Here is the abstract of my thesis, as recorded and documented by the keylogging software: