| The aim of this thesis is to explore myth and ritual as they relate to contemporary culture. To place this topic within a larger context, I focus on the work of Joseph Campbell, Mary Douglas, and George Bataille, among others. Campbell argues that a meaningful transformation can occur through an individual's exploration of his or her personal symbols, myths and rituals. The ritual-like aspects that I perform, individually, as part of my artistic process, result in work that is perverse and subversive, powerful and transformative. This production is not unlike that of the Dadaists and Surrealists, artists who created work that subverted and reinterpreted contemporary visual language. I describe my work, Clash of the Titans, in light of my research on myth, ritual, and the individual, and also in the context of contemporary artists Nancy Spero, Wangechi Mutu, and Jess (Burgess Collins). |
