September Crits – Part 2
(continued from previous post)
The following week, I attended another ‘crit club’ organised for staff at the Tate. It was a really good and useful experience maybe more so as I didn’t really know anybody that also attended. Benedict Drew was invited along as a guest artist to lead the session.
It was a slightly surreal experience at first, as this is a very new club, there was only five or so of us. In fact, at first I was the only one who had brought work to show (although later in the session another artist decided to show her video works via the internet and my laptop).
As I was prepared, I presented some work first. Having focused on my paintings the week before, I took this opportunity to show my installation/structure works. I showed documentation of Remnants at first, but then later ended up showing all of the structure works that I had made over the last 18 months. We spent something in the region of 80 minutes discussing my work, which was incredibly useful. I’m very thankful for that.
We spoke about my use of paper in these works, and how they ‘clad’ the structures. They are reminiscent of those fake building façades. Like those that are used to disguise unsightly buildings as something much grander. Although I think my work is doing something different here. This is something that I need to focus some of my research on. It was interesting that one of the other artists suggested that I experiment with sound. I had been thinking for a while about how to ‘open up’ my work to allow for more of an experience, without going too theatrical. I expressed my concern, as well as my interest in experimenting in this way. I was afraid to go down the ‘fake’ sound route. I don’t want to use recordings of creaking or anything like that. Benedict Drew suggested that I could amplify my work using tiny microphones, which would pick up and amplify any small sound of creaking of paper moving within the structure.
I talked about materials, and how I felt I should be using metal girders in my work, mainly because I hadn’t yet, and because large building projects use these in their construction. The response form this was that such materials could prove to be unnecessary, and would detract from the shack-like and precarious quality that my work has. At the same time, it was argued that such materials would be too much about grand skyscrapers, which in turn would be a highly political statement perhaps. As soon as I start making huge works with girders, it would be about terrorism, war and political unrest. My structural works at the moment suggest haphazardness, a sense of mystery and confusion, as well as abandonment and incompleteness. All things that I intend the work to stand for.
I can’t stress how useful peer critique sessions are. I am really fortunate to have these sessions available to me. Thinking back to my years between the BA and MA, when I had little or no critical feedback from other artists and arts professionals, I was just lost and my practice was ill-informed. Mainly due to the group of artists that I graduated with last year from Wimbledon, this wasn’t something I had to worry too much about. Having a supportive network around me is the the most important part of my practice. It helps to inspire me, motivate me and push me onwards.
