We Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

MFA Thesis Exhibition by Andrew Long

On view: 3/31 - 4/11/25

Reception: Friday, April 4, 5:30 - 7:30pm

“This world in itself is not reasonable. That is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart”  -Albert Camus

This thesis is based on Albert Camus's book, The Myth of Sisyphus.

I have separated this body of work based on his three conclusions drawn from the absurd: revolt, freedom, and passion. There are also three recurring elements throughout all the work: ceramic jars, collapsed wire armatures encased in earthenware, and wooden scaffolding. The jars represent labor and, by extension, the body or personhood, the wire armatures represent the chaos of the absurd, and the scaffolding represents the structures of our lives.  

The first work is influenced by revolt. In this work, the armatures drape the collapsed scaffolding, and the shards are scattered. The shadows projected onto the wall reference the hill created in the work, based on the second conclusion. The second work draws from his concept of freedom. Ascending and descending vessels nestled in collapsed armatures upon wooden scaffolding reference the idea of a mechanical life and the freedom that arises when we ask why, in response to monotony. Finally, the last grouping of work is based on passion. The vessels stand alone, without scaffolding or armatures on pedestals, as a reference to the passion of a life created by freedom and revolt. Each section works as a modular object, repeating itself multiple times, in conversation with one another and as a simultaneous occurrence in a state of being.