SELECTED BOOKS
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas Kuhn
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity
by Richard McKay Rorty
The Art and Thought of Heraclitus
by Charles H. Kahn; Heraclitus
The Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene
STATEMENT
I am looking at the conception of contingency and how random events construct the self at any given time. Every person is an amalgamation of their experiences which is called the contingent self. Each experience layered upon other experiences makes a human what a human is, but it should be noted that the human is constantly changing because the contingency of their life changes with each new experience and each new choice. This idea was first conceptualized in a fragment attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus in which he stated that: “We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.” By turning not only to philosophy but also to scientific theory, I look to the universe as a whole and how it’s constantly changing states relate to the human condition.
BIO
Melissa Hill (b. 1986 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an award winning artist who received both her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 3D Media (2011) and her Bachelor of Arts in Art History (2012) at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia. She is currently working on her Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at George Mason University in the Washington D.C. suburbs of Fairfax, Virginia. Hill’s art has been represented in several solo shows, group exhibitions, and has been collected internationally. She is currently working as a graduate lecturer at George Mason University.
A fascination with tactile materials lead her into working with yarn and other fibers but the content in which Hill addresses began as an interest in family, loss, and the importance of the past. Recently her concepts have developed into both an internal and an external narrative that have gone far afield but remain shaped by her experiences.
