I think that the crit went very well compared to most that I am involved in at this level. It progressed much further than, "I like this because it reminds me of my grandma's old sofa that smells like soap." I am glad that we got into materials choice and craft and how it interacted with the work or concept. People also contributed a lot and there was constructive crit that was very useful that many are afraid to say for fear of stepping on toes. For me I think that I got what I wanted and that was the dialogue that was created by all of you as viewers. I really didn't expect you all to understand the piece because the experience that it was conceived after is by no means very common but you all danced in and out of the concept very well. I was also happy that it became a dialogue and an interesting one because it was interpreted in your own ways relating to your experiences or beliefs. I think that it confirmed for me that my piece was successful. I do agree with the fact now that the faces should have been more different, but in my original concept they were supposed to be me experiencing others memories and I thought that the faces being altered forms of me would have made that more apparent, seeing that no one really understood that I think I should have made that change. Today's crit = Good.
I really liked Tara's work. I obviously am fascinated by the human body/biology since every one of my projects have involved some sort of biological form. I think that her work effectively created a dialogue and that it kept us interested for a good amount of time. The craftsmanship was also done very well. I liked how we were all wondering whether or not the fetuses were deformed or just interacting on some other level, and just what the piece was about. My affinity for political art is wavering, sometimes I find it interesting and others I don't. I think that not knowing what the piece was about was more fun and created a much more interesting dialogue among us, but on the other hand finding out that it was about agent orange after our whole talk it made an impression. So I am really torn on whether or not I would want to know about that if I were in a gallery setting, because as Joe said it kind of cuts everything short, and with such well made objects I don't know if I would want that myself. I enjoyed the project as it was but some part of me would also like to see another related project that would be more abstract and be super surprising. This project did give me a surprise when I found out what it was but if you wanted it to be known that it was about agent orange, I think that to keep the viewers from cutting it short you have to connect with them through a common experience and move them on a very deep level in order to keep them in the concept and interested in what is happening. All in all I think it came out successful.
3 comments:
Ben can you fill me in on which part of your amazing piece actually represented artificial or manmade? Carl Jung believed that the collective conscience was a natural thing and I can see that concept in your piece. Since you have really thought this out, I am wondering how I missed that which you considered artificial...it all seems natural to me.
The natural part was the brown clay body face at the top representing me. The synthetic part was the way I "experienced" the collective conscience through a dream I was being forced into a situation that was out of time and out of place therefore fabricated in my mind from an existing part of the collective but not the actual situation as it went on in the space/time continuum. If that makes any sense whatsoever.
I agree with Ben on Tara's piece. Physically the forms were right on with the real thing. Finding out that the clay forms placed inside of the "wombs" were in relation to agent Orange cleared up my questions about the meaning of the piece. I would have liked to see them all over the crit space with all different kinds of strange clay babies in the wombs.
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