A year on from my own degree show!
Last night i returned to my university for this years degree show. I year on since my own degree show, i made my way home feeling confused and disappointed. I mean no disrespect to any of the students participating but i left thinking that i didnt like a lot of the work.
There was a lot of painting, which i felt was of a good quality, as was the photography and the printing. The more conceptual work i seemed to struggle with. I found it difficult to appreciate and admire.
But instead of this meaning that the work isn’t very good, i’m now thinking that it has nothing to do with the quality of the work but comes from my own lack of understanding and my mental block when it comes to conceptual and sculptural work.
I find it very hard to appreciate sculptural and conceptual work. I just dont get it. i know it sounds ignorant but i really struggle. With the more conceptual work, if i know the history, the thought process, where it has come from then i will be able to relate or empathise better which in turn means that my appreciation is much better.
But at the degree show, i didnt have the opportunity to read about the work like i would have liked to nor to talk to the artists. The ones that i did manage to, i got a much better understanding.
So I’ve reached the conclusion that its me not you. Its my mental block the prevents me from being able to enjoy more of the work on show.
But it also worries me. I dont think that my work is particularly conceptual. Perhaps some people might thing it is, i see it as an obsession with night and darkness. How many people at my own degree show went away feeling the same way i did last night? what if the people that see my work at the the exhibition in august, leave feeling the same way that i left feeling yesterday?
i dont people to come along to my private view and think, wow that was really crap! So surely, hard work and effort will prevent this from happening? does one need anymore motivation than that?
