Date of Award
12-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Visual Arts
Committee Chair/Advisor
Valerie Zimany
Committee Member
Andrea Feeser
Committee Member
Kiley Brandt
Abstract
Unloved Ecologies is an exhibition of ceramic sculptures that stage encounters between human and nonhuman bodies. Through it, I investigate the intersections of queer identity and ecology to reevaluate what society often deems “unlovable.” By working with the language of Queer Ecology, I explore the tensions between protection and vulnerability, as well as between cultivated order and wild resistance. Ceramic sculpture is my mode for examining moments of transformation, repair, and growth, and natural processes function as metaphors for the ways external pressures shape individuals. My overall goal is to explore the ecological processes of change and examine how our treatment of land and other species can be used to reflect on our treatment of one another, thereby inviting more caring and livable relations. Unloved Ecologies uses hybrid forms made of plant, animal, and human bodies to represent the intertwining of the human and nonhuman worlds. These works blur the line between them, examining how everyday actions toward land and other species become habits of control: we prune to force a shape, use a grid to sort and contain, and label “weeds” to justify their removal. Through this lens, Unloved Ecologies trains empathy in the viewer. By practicing empathy with beings who are not immediately “us”, my work encourages adapting to meet differences in the “other” without requiring conformity. I intend that pattern to transfer to people who the norm pushes to the edges, so acceptance can replace artificial, false hierarchies.
Recommended Citation
Griffin, Ellen, "Unloved Ecologies" (2025). All Theses. 4655.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4655