MFA EDA

Tracy Fish: “Times of Stillness”

We invited artists from Duke’s MFA EDA community to share work they have made in response to the coronavirus crisis. See the full “Home & Away” collection here. Artist’s Reflection Some ...

More Info

Kristin Bedford: Cruise Night

We invited artists from Duke’s MFA EDA community to share work they have made in response to the coronavirus crisis. See the full “Home & Away” collection here. Artist’s Reflection When ...

More Info

Taoyuan Jin, MFA EDA ’22: “sequence”

Taoyuan Jin’s thesis sequence is a short film about being in transit and moving through the illegible American landscapes. Integrating sources from the digital and natural worlds, the film is an account of fragmented memories, momentary spectacles, and the personal journeys of a directionless traveler and narrator.

More Info

Shirin Maleki, MFA EDA ’22: “30/900”

Shirin Maleki's thesis 30/900 is a video installation exploring concepts such as separation, language attrition, memory, reflections on the past and present. The videos read the fragmented experience of an immigrant going through temporary residencies in a forever-liminal otherness between departure and a promised arrival.

More Info

Julie Platner MFA EDA ‘21: “Third Alternate Executor”

Julie Platner's short film ”Third Alternate Executor” explores the life, mortality, and ephemera of her Uncle Kenny, a human deeply entrenched in an eccentric version of normative, white, lower-class social structures. The piece seeks to elaborate on performative masculinity, objecthood, class and the American Dream.

More Info

Mingyong Cheng MFA EDA ‘21: “Water or More”

“Water or More” is an interactive installation that uses facets of water to describe the wide-ranging emotions of human existence, taking inspiration from the reflection of water in literature, poems, and films. The project explores how to optimize space and combine the real and virtual to design an immersive audience experience.

More Info

Moriah LeFebvre MFA EDA ‘21: “by & by”

Alexa Dilworth interviews Moriah LeFebvre, MFA EDA '21, about her use of drawing and animation to tell highly personal stories, including those in her thesis film, by & by and Works in Rough Going: Recovery Community and Communication During the Pandemic, currently on view in the Keohane-Kenan Gallery and online.

More Info

Jade Chuyu Xiong MFA EDA ‘21: “Mutual Players”

Jade Chuyu Xiong’s film “Mutual Players” juxtaposes movie clips from early English films that feature actors of Chinese descent in Chinese roles. By reediting the original footage, Xiong aims to craft a new narrative that challenges the stereotypical ways in which Asian and Asian American actors are portrayed in Western cinema.

More Info

Bree von Bradsky MFA EDA ‘21: “Lavender Vista”

Bree von Bradsky's “Lavender Vista” is a short experimental film that depicts the disorientating effects of coming out. Through the style of collage, the film weaves together archival home movies, educational films, and commercials to create a landscape that spans from the suburban USA to the celestial.

More Info

Yang Xu MFA EDA ‘21: “Outset”

Yang Xu’s exhibit “Outset” explores her feelings about and understanding of the college entrance examination, which is taken by tens of millions of Chinese students each June. The exam is not only the starting point for students to realize their dreams, but also a battle that requires all-out efforts.

More Info

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts Class of 2021

We showcase the work of this year’s graduating cohort in the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program in this special series of interviews. Fellow artists, MFA EDA alumni, faculty, and mentors interviewed each graduating student about their thesis exhibitions, which are on view at Duke, in Durham, and online May 7 through June 5.

Katelyn Auger MFA EDA ‘21: “Paradise in the Pines”

Katelyn Auger's thesis film “Paradise in the Pines” is the culmination of two years exploring complicated feelings around family, environment, and memory. Auger shares how she reappropriated home movies alongside 16mm footage to create a meditation on forgiveness and understanding.

More Info

Jayne Yu Wang MFA EDA ‘21: “The Unfinished Utopia”

Jayne Yu Wang's “The Unfinished Utopia” is an installation of a fictional city, Fangchuan, at the border of China, Russia, and North Korea. Following a foreign flaneur’s diary, viewers will have the opportunity to explore the city through audio, photography, architectural design, Instagram posts, and ordinary objects in this city.

Mao Wei MFA EDA ’20: Manual City

Inspired by Plato and the concept of media gatekeepers, Mao Wei’s installation is a fairy tale of projections that prompt the viewer to reconsider reality. With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info

Cici Cheng MFA EDA ’20: How to Build a Home

Cici Cheng’s quiet, thoughtful portraits capture her family at work renovating a 1970s house into “their first and forever home.” With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info

Fati Abubakar MFA EDA ’20: African in America

Fati Abubakar studied nursing and public health before she started documenting life in her home region in Borno State, Nigeria. In "African in America," she uses photography to "highlight the diversity of immigrants that are not acknowledged in the usual story." With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info

Zaire McPhearson MFA EDA ’20: A Fall From Grace

Zaire McPhearson interviewed her grandmother and great aunts about a traumatic experience that challenged their faith and tells their story through sculpture and photography. With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info

Michael Betts II MFA EDA ’20: Revolutionary Teaching

Meet sound designer and documentary artist Michael Betts II, the new CDS Courses Director for the Center for Documentary Studies. For his thesis exhibition, he designed an immersive, interactive experience that invites visitors to be anti-racist. With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info

Lauren Henschel MFA EDA ’20: “Fibers of Being”

Lauren Henschel was finishing her thesis exhibition—a complex, multi-layered installation that speaks to mortality—just as the whole world was confronted by its theme: how our bodies fail us. With spring thesis presentations postponed, Duke Arts honors the MFA EDA Class of 2020 with interviews that dig into the projects and their makers.

More Info