Overt Symbols
Thesis Exhibition: February 18 – 21, 2015

Opening Reception: February 20, 6 – 8:30 PM
Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM

Family Ties, wool and men's silk tie, 9 x 13," 2013
 

New World Rituals, video still, 2015
 

a thing, like a reflector, returns the light it has received from it
Keith Hamilton Basso

I am imagining the tie as a reflector, and what kind of light it sheds on those who wear it, those who see it. A necktie is worn to indicate performance. Isolated, the tie has no utilitarian worth, and only operates symbolically under agreed upon cultural codes. The necktie’s potential is in the ritual that activates that belief. Detached from the body, this silky rag becomes functionally barren, unthreatening, tucked away into darkness until the next ceremonial act. Expanded to disproportionate sizes, it takes on a life of its own.

Buzytsky closes out her MFA in Fibers and Materials Studies with the multi-media installation Overt Symbols. During her time at Tyler, she has also completed a Graduate Certificate in Documentary and Ethnographic Practice through Temple University’s Department of Film & Media Arts

The artist immigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1987, growing up in Seattle, Washington. Since completion of her BFA from Pratt Institute in 2005, she has lived and worked in New York City, Santa Fe and Philadelphia. Her ongoing investigation of ethnographic film, anthropology and material culture are the foundation for her multi-disciplinary practice. 

For more information, visit www.buzytsky.com

All images courtesy of the artist.