Encompassing a broad range of themes, media, and levels of participation, each set of works in this year’s Maine College of Art exhibition by nine thesis-level Master’s of Fine Arts students achieves its own world and requires a separate toolkit to process and unpack.

The 16 pillars in the Congress Street window gallery belong to “Ten Miles Square,” Alexandra Silverthorne’s photographic investigation of the topographic origins and evolution of the Washington DC boundary. In an accompanying book of photographs laid accordion-style, Silverthorne exhaustively captures the present-day life seen from each of the 40 sandstone markers that have delineated DC since 1792. With each page offering four photographs taken from each marker, Silverthorne constructs a bioecological negative image of how the stones regard the capital, emphasizing quotidian existence over political boundary.

Interested in the ever-changing nature of space and place, I use photography as a means to understand and explore spatial environments and encounters. By presenting a review of my own recent projects, as well as a brief investigation into the ideas and terms that have influenced these projects, this thesis situates my practice within the framework of this conceptual language. Especially attracted to theories of perception, presence, and disorientation in relation to how we experience space, this thesis focuses on my most recent project, Ten Miles Square. By using the original boundary stones of Washington, DC as a starting point, Ten Miles Square challenges common notions of the capital city by highlighting the everyday, lived perspective of local residents.

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