Chuck Ramirez: Outsider Objects
| dc.contributor.advisor | Koontz, Rex | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Locheed, Jessica | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Jacobs, David L. | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Castillo, Eric | |
| dc.creator | Gaunt, Illa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-07-21T15:51:17Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2014-07-21T15:51:17Z | |
| dc.date.created | May 2014 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2014-05 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2014-07-21T15:51:17Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Chuck Ramirez, a graphic designer for H-E-B, a Texas-based grocery store chain, spent his workdays communicating ideas through the products he promoted in glossy advertisements and posters. His professional career undoubtedly influenced his artistic endeavors, which revolved around producing images of everyday objects. He often photographed his subjects out of context, isolated against a stark white background, thereby provoking the viewer to reexamine them. What was it about coconuts, grocery bags, pillboxes, piñatas, raw meat, wilted flowers, and worn brooms that enthralled Ramirez? What ideas was he communicating through the idiosyncratic objects he chose to photograph? This thesis will illustrate how the quotidian objects Ramirez chose to examine were linked to his liminal identity. While Ramirez’s photographs on the surface appear as merely images of simple objects, in reality his works play out like self-portraits, reflecting the overlapping complexities of his identity and the struggle to come to terms with who he was. A self-proclaimed “coconut,” Ramirez was a Mexican-American who was reared like a “white kid;” a designation that made him neither Chicano, nor Mexican nor Anglo. Furthermore, he was a gay man contending with HIV and struggling with a serious heart condition. The objects in his photographs serve as stand-ins for himself and are metaphorically connected to his self-proclaimed “outsider” status. Ramirez’s objects became a medium through which he contemplated his race, upbringing, sexuality and illnesses. This thesis will examine Ramirez’s work in a broader context, considering the influence his environment and heritage had on his artistic themes and techniques, while also assaying the personal discourse embedded in his creations. | |
| dc.description.department | Art, School of | |
| dc.format.digitalOrigin | born digital | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10657/687 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s). | |
| dc.subject | Ramirez, Chuck | |
| dc.subject | Rasquache | |
| dc.subject | Rasquachismo | |
| dc.subject | San Antonio | |
| dc.subject | Texas | |
| dc.subject | Identity | |
| dc.subject | Infinito Botanica | |
| dc.title | Chuck Ramirez: Outsider Objects | |
| dc.type.dcmi | Text | |
| dc.type.genre | Thesis | |
| thesis.degree.college | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.department | Art, School of | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Art History | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Houston | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts |