Simple Gifts: Performing Place in Suburbia

Political theorist Jane Bennett, renowned for her work on ethics and the environment, brings our gaze from the human experience of things to things themselves. In Vibrant Matter, Bennett theorizes an inherent vitality of materiality and promotes a non-binary approach between animal and human, organic and inorganic, matter and life, in favour of the vibrancy of matter. The thesis addresses these concepts through material distinction, performance, and preference of stage. The work is situated on a suburban front lawn and consist of foraged organic and inorganic materials that are incorporated with worms and open to the elements. My thesis examines the performance of staged sculptures on a suburban front lawn. Through creative investigation and multidisciplinary research in installation art, twentieth-century Western theatre development, and philosophy, I intend to illustrate how art can arise from place and address current artistic and environmental thought.