Unmeasured, detached and isolated explores the lingering effects of colonialism on identity, behavior, and cultural perception through the lens of my personal experience as a Venezuelan immigrant in the United States. I investigate how colonial legacies—especially those codified through manuals of etiquette like Manuel Antonio Carreño’s Manual de Urbanidad y Buenas Maneras—continue to shape self-perception and societal expectations. Through video, sculpture, miniatures, and installation, I reconstruct a visual language that resists simplification and reclaims complexity. Engaging with the symbolic weight of tropical imagery, domestic spaces, and hybrid aesthetics, my work challenges Eurocentric frameworks and examines the figure of the migrant as a socially constructed “stranger.” By foregrounding opacity, disorder, and play, the thesis text and artwork open space for alternative ways of knowing and being—seeking not to resolve identity but to hold its contradictions. The project becomes both a critique of inherited norms and a speculative proposal for cultural reimagining
","abstract_html":"<p>Unmeasured, detached and isolated explores the lingering effects of colonialism on identity, behavior, and cultural perception through the lens of my personal experience as a Venezuelan immigrant in the United States. I investigate how colonial legacies—especially those codified through manuals of etiquette like Manuel Antonio Carreño’s Manual de Urbanidad y Buenas Maneras—continue to shape self-perception and societal expectations. Through video, sculpture, miniatures, and installation, I reconstruct a visual language that resists simplification and reclaims complexity. Engaging with the symbolic weight of tropical imagery, domestic spaces, and hybrid aesthetics, my work challenges Eurocentric frameworks and examines the figure of the migrant as a socially constructed “stranger.” By foregrounding opacity, disorder, and play, the thesis text and artwork open space for alternative ways of knowing and being—seeking not to resolve identity but to hold its contradictions. The project becomes both a critique of inherited norms and a speculative proposal for cultural reimagining</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Agüero, Eva M"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Graduate School of Art","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Amy Hauft","Monika Weiss","Jose Garza"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-05-07T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-05-07T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:12:17Z","subjects":["Postcolonialism","Colonial","Immigration","Latinx","Venezuela","Etiquette","Ceramics","Video art","Art and Design","Ceramic Arts","Fine Arts","Interdisciplinary Arts and Media","Sculpture"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_visual_art/36","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Amy Hauft","Monika Weiss","Jose Garza"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Agüero, Eva M"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-05-12T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Graduate School of Art"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Postcolonialism","Colonial","Immigration","Latinx","Venezuela","Etiquette","Ceramics","Video art","Art and Design","Ceramic Arts","Fine Arts","Interdisciplinary Arts and Media","Sculpture"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_visual_art/36"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Unmeasured, detached and isolated explores the lingering effects of colonialism on identity, behavior, and cultural perception through the lens of my personal experience as a Venezuelan immigrant in the United States. I investigate how colonial legacies—especially those codified through manuals of etiquette like Manuel Antonio Carreño’s Manual de Urbanidad y Buenas Maneras—continue to shape self-perception and societal expectations. Through video, sculpture, miniatures, and installation, I reconstruct a visual language that resists simplification and reclaims complexity. Engaging with the symbolic weight of tropical imagery, domestic spaces, and hybrid aesthetics, my work challenges Eurocentric frameworks and examines the figure of the migrant as a socially constructed “stranger.” By foregrounding opacity, disorder, and play, the thesis text and artwork open space for alternative ways of knowing and being—seeking not to resolve identity but to hold its contradictions. The project becomes both a critique of inherited norms and a speculative proposal for cultural reimagining
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