If you want an honest opinion about your artwork ask a teenager.
Yesterday I asked myself whether the idea for something can be more interesting/important than the final object created so today I asked the students of Wey Valley School. I was there with students from AUCB for a project called Aim Higher where University students talk to secondary students about what they do at university. I decided to make use of this audience to find out what they thought about my current situation.
After introducing myself and the nature of my research in terms of art education I produced the results of my making. A piece I called ‘Don’t turn the light on’. The piece is 31 sheets of handmade paper which have been dipped in developer as a pile after being treated with liquid light and exposed to yellow light and dried. But the students where not aware of this yet. After showing them this object and it’s title I asked for their responses. Most were unimpressed, some were intrigued.
I went on to explain how this object came into existence. My idea was to combine paper making and photography; to make a photograph of making paper and then print the photograph on to the paper I had made so that the object was self reflexive. The idea made sense to them and I explain how I went about achieving it. Everything had gone to plan until I left the yellow light on in the dark room an exposed my light sensitive paper. The result being that this object now on display.
My question to them was whether the story of how the object came into existance changed there perception of it. All agreed that this object was now more valuable because of the time put into the process. One student suggested I should just throw it in the bin and start again, others protested and felt that this was an important achievement. They suggested that I display the work and the story as an audio file. One student felt that the sketchbook I had created was the real artwork as it documented the process.
My second question was should I now begin again with the process and create the thing I was attempting to create. Some felt that what I had achieved was worthy and could not have been created had it not been for the idea behind it and the processes it went through and so there was no need to remake. If fact we agreed that it was almost impossible to recreate something exactly and that it was possible that if/when I followed the procedure again indefinitely I would create a unique object each time. We agreed that the object on display now does not communicate the concept behind the making, at least not without being told the story behind it and so although this was and interesting outcome it was still important to move forward with the benefit of experience and attempt to create the object conceived at the beginning of the process.
