nOt JuSt AnOtHeR 2000 wOrD wRiTtEn MfA tHeSiS

Alternative Title

Aesthetics of Real

Authors

Taylor ClevelandFollow

Streaming Media

Subject Area

Art, Art History/Criticism/Conservation

Abstract

This thesis challenges the standardized academic expectations placed upon studio-based MFA programs, using the process of writing itself as a site of institutional critique. Emerging from a 27,000-word working draft titled Aesthetics of Real, this final text adopts the permitted format of an “extended artist statement” to expose contradictions within institutional frameworks. It resists the assumption that professionalism and compliance equate to intellectual rigor, arguing that true artistic inquiry demands risk, failure, and confrontation with systemic norms. Through works like 3MUSTANGS, Facades of Dallas (Hall), SuperPOD0043: An American Painting, and Babel’n On, this thesis reveals how institutions often mistake performance for substance—and how, without critique, even care becomes a mechanism of containment. Refusing to kneel to formal assumptions, the thesis asserts that Real is not simply encountered, but made—manipulated, stretched, stressed, and revealed. Ending mid-sentence, it complies in form while refusing in spirit—forcing the archive itself to confront what it chooses to preserve as success, rigor, and Real.

Degree Date

Spring 5-17-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Department

Meadows School of the Arts

Advisor

Melanie Clemmons

Second Advisor

Burke Jam

Third Advisor

Dana Buzzee

Notes

A thesis written to expose the cages we build for art— and the ones art can still escape from. 🐎🐎🐎 taylorcleveland.com

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the institution that made this work possible.

Number of Pages

15

Format

.pdf

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Recommended Citation

Cleveland, Taylor, "nOt JuSt AnOtHeR 2000 wOrD wRiTtEn MfA tHeSiS" (2025). Art Theses and Dissertations. 31.
https://scholar.smu.edu/art_etds/31