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The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter
My MFA project sets out to make fire 'strange' again. That is to say, I foreground intrigue and complexity in the contemplation of common place and metaphorical fires. By crafting artworks as intimate envoys for larger existential concerns and human agency in a world fundamentally mediated by fire,...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Michaelis School of Fine Art
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613274098368512 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Vives, Diana |
| author2 | Campbell, Kurt |
| author_browse | Campbell, Kurt Vives, Diana |
| author_facet | Campbell, Kurt Vives, Diana |
| author_sort | Vives, Diana |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | My MFA project sets out to make fire 'strange' again. That is to say, I foreground intrigue and complexity in the contemplation of common place and metaphorical fires. By crafting artworks as intimate envoys for larger existential concerns and human agency in a world fundamentally mediated by fire, I engage with fire as a generative empirical phenomenon and its accompanying deep theoretical and philosophical heritage. Ever since fire was first harnessed, it has played a pivotal role in shaping human cognition and desire, and consequently, in reshaping the Earth. In my creative process, I bring fire into focus through a lens that is sympa thetic to new materialism, botanical paradigms and neo-animism. My work borrows from the metalanguage of mythology and ancient belief systems to mediate between ideas of conscious and unconscious, memory and imagination, nature and culture, past and present. The essential thread that runs through my research is the ideation of fire as manifest in the mind, body and the object/thing world. Crucially, all the materials used in my artworks are corporeally mediated by fire. Some - like stone - originate from it. Others, like clay or metal, are shaped by it. Wood, however, is central to my material concerns: trees and timber scorched in wildfires feature in my work to symbolise human flesh or the roots of individuals and collectives, bringing with them their own complex histories of climate, displacement and exploitation. These materials, freighted with metaphor, are the means and trigger through which I create carefully crafted, anomalous objects that support lucid and productive itineraries of thought on both 'fire' and 'mind' and the aesthetic that brings them together. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41377 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:31.121Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| publisherStr | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41377 The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter Vives, Diana Campbell, Kurt fine art My MFA project sets out to make fire 'strange' again. That is to say, I foreground intrigue and complexity in the contemplation of common place and metaphorical fires. By crafting artworks as intimate envoys for larger existential concerns and human agency in a world fundamentally mediated by fire, I engage with fire as a generative empirical phenomenon and its accompanying deep theoretical and philosophical heritage. Ever since fire was first harnessed, it has played a pivotal role in shaping human cognition and desire, and consequently, in reshaping the Earth. In my creative process, I bring fire into focus through a lens that is sympa thetic to new materialism, botanical paradigms and neo-animism. My work borrows from the metalanguage of mythology and ancient belief systems to mediate between ideas of conscious and unconscious, memory and imagination, nature and culture, past and present. The essential thread that runs through my research is the ideation of fire as manifest in the mind, body and the object/thing world. Crucially, all the materials used in my artworks are corporeally mediated by fire. Some - like stone - originate from it. Others, like clay or metal, are shaped by it. Wood, however, is central to my material concerns: trees and timber scorched in wildfires feature in my work to symbolise human flesh or the roots of individuals and collectives, bringing with them their own complex histories of climate, displacement and exploitation. These materials, freighted with metaphor, are the means and trigger through which I create carefully crafted, anomalous objects that support lucid and productive itineraries of thought on both 'fire' and 'mind' and the aesthetic that brings them together. 2025-04-10T09:29:14Z 2025-04-10T09:29:14Z 2024 2025-04-10T07:09:13Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41377 en eng application/pdf Michaelis School of Fine Art Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | fine art Vives, Diana The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| title_full | The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| title_fullStr | The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| title_full_unstemmed | The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| title_short | The fire in the mind: memory, myth & matter |
| title_sort | fire in the mind memory myth amp matter |
| topic | fine art |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41377 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vivesdiana thefireinthemindmemorymythampmatter AT vivesdiana fireinthemindmemorymythampmatter |