This sculpture and installation-based studio course engages fundamental philosophical questions concerning the ability of art to invoke the magical and metaphysical today, exploring pervasive concepts of the material and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane. Throughout history, artists have challenged established belief systems, questioned their immediate reality, and explored beyond it. They’ve made kinship with things outside of themselves, and ventured into the realm of the invisible in search of transformation, transcendence and new knowledge of the world. The course will be divided into the following three blocks: The Immaterial will be understood as a way to counter the chaos of contemporary life. This block will discuss concepts such as silence, nothingness, the sublime and the ephemeral. We will work on projects that are purposely more poetic than logical, and that expand our experience of existing in the tangible world. The Material will emphasize intimate relationships with our physical surroundings, reconsidering the mundane and the potential it offers to reach other realms. Profanity will be praised as the material engagement of the soul, the vehicle for bringing back the sacred into communal use, and the place for the production of rituals without myths.Animism will bring humans and non-humans closer, effacing the conventional binaries that limit our knowledge. We will examine works that assimilate the animal body, animistic fetishism, and enchantment, with a view towards decentralizing the human.

This interdisciplinary studio course explores material strategies of making where more is more. Maximalist ornament can be used for veneration, for satire, or even as a tool for subversion. It can instill awe or overload the senses. From the 17th c French Baroque to 1990’s Harijuku fashion in Japan, students will explore the various ways in which maximalist strategies are employed from a global perspective. We will also take a multifaceted dive into the political implications of maximalism, from the Pattern and Decoration Movement to rampant consumerism and the contemporary digital landscape. Students across Parsons working in various media are encouraged to participate, and projects in this class can span digital images, collage, installation, textiles and sculpture.