Shaun Crit Analysis
Sophie-Ann Micheson and myself
During this semester we went to the Shaun Project space in order to discuss our work to see where we can go further and improve on what we are doing. I have looked at Sophie Ann Micheson work. Her work consisted of many block of resin containing a range of plants, flowers and materials such as ink ranging in shapes such as cubes and spheres. When the light caught the resin blocks it reminded me of looking through a window and seeing preserved flowers up close and from every angle. In the crit however, we discussed about how Sophie may be able to use the resin on a larger scale much like Damien Hurst did with a shark. Some of her resin sculptures however didn't set right and changed in colour although many thought that this was quite a nice touch as it added another dimension to the resin, setting it apart from the others.
Another crit I am going to mention is my own. I was not prepared for this crit however due to my turn being the following week so I brought down only a few of what I had. Presenting a few small paintings (bunched together) it was mentioned how if I perhaps spread my work around the room, limiting each wall to one piece the concentration was intensified between each one highlighting all the pros and cons of my paintings. One of which was of a half naked body with her heart pouring out of her bra. I did this to create perhaps a less gory take on exposing the heart keeping the detail purely on the heart. Although, that was not where the attention was focused. It was mentioned that the asymmetric look of the waist and its disproportion was found interesting in a way of how unrealistic it look. Rather than smooth it was jagged allowing another element to perhaps be brought into my painting.
Semester 2 Crits:
Sophie-Ann Micheson
As we moved into the second semester crits I decided to focus once again on Sophie-Anne's work to see how it has moved on and developed from the last time I looked at it. In this crit Sophie has numerous egg-shaped balls made out of various materials such as string as well as making smaller eggs using a felting technique. When displaying her work, Sophie chose to lay them out almost randomly on the floor of the white cube space rather than perhaps placing them on a plinth or hanging from the ceiling. She had done this to keep in with her theme of nature and natural environment; placing more emphasis on their delicate and fragile state. within the egg-shaped balls were a range of flowers which looked like they were growing up through the centre of each egg, therefore creating a juxtaposition between the egg and the thought of life coming from within it. What was mentioned within this crit for Sophie to move on with her project is to perhaps place her sculptures within a natural environment (outside of the studio) rather than in a white cube space. This would then create less of a contrast between her work and the surrounding environment creating a more subtle contrast between her use of materials and the environment.
Kate Kneen
In this weeks crits, Kate's work consisted of one large and another smaller scale shark completely made out of black plastic straws which she has cleverly put together by hand using a hot glue gun, then suspended them from the ceiling placing them in the middle of the room drawling all attention into the centre space. Although contrasting from her work last semester of the 7ft bears, Kate's work this semester has moved into a more sculptural formation. During the crit Kate mentioned how she was perhaps planning on creating a circular suspension hanging from the ceiling consisting of several sharks rather than two. I found this concept quite interesting as it reminded me of sharks circle around their prey; although the sculptures are made of a man-made material Kate in creating the illusion of them in their natural territory. As well as the two sharks, Kate also brought along a paper mache shark head. Its skeleton being made out of straws then covered in the paper mache. Their was discussion of presenting the shark head as a form of public art; someone wearing the shark as a head around Sunderland or the university. I thought this was a very clever idea and it makes the work not only interactive but able to be in different contexts.
Alex Jones
In the first part of Alex's crit he presented two large scale landscape paintings with large areas of geometric colour. His landscape paintings were very free hand and placed emphasis on the brush strokes. When discussing his work, Alex mentioned how his work was influenced from sound waves and how each wave would create a different brush stroke. In the second part of his crit a couple weeks later, he preformed a sound piece from his guitar which he created and had influenced on of his paintings. Alex also talked about how when preforming music people wrote/worked from sheet music but he however used different lines and shapes to represent the pitch. tempo and rhythm of the music. I loved this idea and I find it a very unique way of combining modern day art with music.
