Showing Of My Work In The Shaun Project Space for Crit Feedback.
Today I had the opportunity to show a few pieces of my work in the Shaun Project Space along with fellow artists' Andrew Parkin and Stuart Teears. I decided to show a range of pieces that best showed the various pathways I've been exploring in the studio. This I found was a great way to get critical feedback and to determine an understanding of what process others thought was being successful and which areas needed further development.
The overall process of the crit and the feedback I received was positive as a whole but I feel I gathered the most beneficial comments to be in regards to the 4ft x 4ft Vinyl Tape Board that I included. Amongst the comments I received and that was expressed to me was; a visual similarity between my work and the modernist design of the 70s, a resemblance to the dazzle paintings on WWII Ships, and also a reference that the artwork looked like something that would be seen in a highly modern, open-planned apartment.
This reinforced my personal opinion that my process of using Vinyl Tape is progressing in a way I find be successful. Therefore I plan to continue with the Vinyl Tape method within my studio practice and through further experimentation create more pieces.
My whole selection of work that I included within the crit was:-
Two Pieces of A2 Paper which show a mix of Expressive Ink Strokes.
One 4ft x 4ft MDF Board, covered with Vinyl Tape.
Two 2ft x 2ft MDF Boards, One covered with Insulation Tape and the other in Vinyl Tape.
Five A4 Digital Prints developed from small sections of the Initial Expressive Ink compositions.
As myself, Andy and Stuart all have different creative approach's and focuses I initially thought that there would be some difficulty in regards to placing our work together but it surprisingly went well together.
A method I used when exhibiting both of my 2ft x 2ft Vinyl Tape Boards, was to place both of them on the alternative sides of the plinth Andy was using. By doing this I was exploring how my work would look architecturally within a space, and also I was trying to bridge the segregation between our work. Overall I felt it worked well as a method as it allowed people to walk round and view Andy's Sculptural/Painting of Charles Bronson whilst also viewing Two of my pieces at the same time.
Andrew Parkins.
Andy's work focuses upon the subject of the British Underworld with a particular interest in Charles Bronson, and also the sport of Boxing. His approach to making work is very relaxed and he doesn't focus on achieving high amounts of detail within his work. This subsequently allows his him to create a HUGE amount of work that ranges in material; Paintings, Plaster, Mirror, Plywood, Stretched Canvases.
Amongst Andy's pieces I personally found his prison door painting to be the most interesting as it offered a sense of depth between the 4 small paintings and the background door. This I feel was due to his colour choices as the dark blue contrasted the lighter pink and brownish colour sections and as a result gave the impression that they were in fact in the foreground. This compositional method of painting and placement of portraiture I feel made you question if they were meant to be viewed as multiple pieces in one image, or instead one whole image.
Stuart Teears.
Stuart's work in the studio has been focusing on and exploring his interest in nature; the natural landscape and the human form. The crit allowed him to show this interest and he done so in the form of various pieces but I found his ceramic head to be most interesting. The head was made and painted in a way to resemble leaves, and the way they flow and wrap around the top of the head and down the sides of the face, I feel subtly expresses a visual connection to hair. The method behind painting the ceramic face to look like wood instead of actually using wood I feel only adds to the piece, as it tricks the viewer into thinking a certain way initially, before switching their understanding after their realisation. The landscape is also portrayed in another way I feel, as the wood effect painted lines resemble the lines present in topographic maps which communicate a landscapes geographical form.
