The Distance Between

MFA Thesis Exhibition

“Forever unseen

The distance is killing me

The distance between”

Emma Ruthe Rundel, The Distance


The Distance Between is a collection of works installed as a temple of cicadas with the culmination of pieces enshrining the cycle of their annual emergence. This exhibition utilizes the design elements and architectural foundation of a Gothic cathedral with each piece correlating to a specific element or object of the space. Each element is a reliquary preserving different points during the ascension and descension of the cycle of the cicada with both their rise and fall being a necessity in the cycle. Cicadas are cast in an array of forms in glass and bronze utilizing the intrinsic qualities of the materials in conjunction with their historical use. The phenomenon of the rise and fall of cicadas is approached through the visual language and iconography of Catholicism as a means of theoretical “conversion”. This work is a romanticized solution of presenting the environment as a place of worship, a speculative narrative where the life and cycles within it are divine in their language and sacred in their power to reemerge once more. This space of theoretical religion has roots in ancient religions of Paganism, which had repeated themes of animism and ecological balance through posthuman aspects of the worship of land in relation to man. Christianity appropriated Pagan imagery as a means of conversion, and as such I am appropriating Christian imagery as a reverting to speculative ecological beliefs. The cycle of cicadas is paralleled to resurrection, as their annual emergence after a mass of death is almost mythical in nature. This is furthered by the lore of periodical cicadas, as their sporadic emergences are momentarily monumental. Cicadas, even when alive, are akin to ghosts as their songs humm throughout the summer months yet their presence is often only heard, not seen. These tiny phantoms are transfigured into an experience of reverence through their representation in the work by the use of climactic lighting and the crescendo of their song. As viewers walk throughout the show, they are taken through the circular cycle of the phenomena of the emergence and disappearance of the cicada.