Suspension of Belief

This paper is written both as a compliment to and in defense of Yaro Shon Neils' Master's Thesis Exhibition Suspension of Belief, an art installation and performance during which the artist created a bedroom-like space and slept in the Gallery of Visual Arts for the three week duration of the exhibition. The statement for the show read: Suspension of Belief explores the line between the fantastical and the mundane, loosely investigating the role that fairy tales and other myths play in shaping personal identity and our larger cultural mythology. When engaging with a story, a temporary willing suspension of disbelief is necessary to fully connect to the events unfolding. But what happens when this suspension of disbelief is carried over into the everyday; illusory messages being reiterated until they create a foundation for a cultural identity, until we’ve forgotten that they’re mere mythology, until they become belief? Is anything lost when we regain cognizance of the mythology that constructs so much of our cultural underpinning? Are there parts of these myths worth holding on to?

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Montana

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Neils, Yaro Shon Cora

• art installation
• fairy tales
• gender constructs
• performance art
• sleep
• vulnerability

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1377

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-2396