Crit Group (with Michael Day)

Crit Group 
Michael Day

During the crit group we had to walk around to each others work and describe what we can see and what different processes we thought they did during the production of their work.
This was really good because the idea of the artist not talking first and the group describing what they can see, reveals various ideas of what it can be and hearing these ideas gave me loads of ideas of where to go from here.

They first looked at the piece of artwork 'index of receipts' and they talked about some really interesting aspects that they thought it was showing.
Here are some of the ideas that they came up with:

• They were looking into whether the receipts were in some type of order (this was really good because at this time I was wondering whether they would notice the order I had put them in).
• They thought the order was the most expensive at one end and the least expensive at the other (this could be something that I can look into if I decide to rearrange them).
• The receipts are like a hoarder as if someone had collected them for years.
• By placing them on the wall it is like everything has been made to be the same, doesn't matter about the price, they are all equal.
• Also be placing them on a wall it reveals their importance whereas if they are in your wallet they are unimportant as they get forgotten about.

This was really interesting because the outcome that I wanted the audience to get was successful within the crit group. Also I gathered some good ideas in case I wanted to change around the order of the receipts.

Moving on, the 'New York' one was more interesting because they read more ideas from it than I thought originally!

This is what they came up with:

• It looked like a scene off the 'Disaster Movie'. It looked fake but real at the same time.
• With it being in New York, demolishing central park where the entrance to hell has gone is like its destroying nature and consumerism is taking over.

Listening to others in the group describe this piece of work has made it easier for myself to understand it and be able to talk about it.

This is what the group said about the 'Money Doesn't Grow On Trees' one:

• They thought there was a connection between this and the New York one as they are both looking at nature being taken over.
• The way the manikin head related to nature and how man plays a big part in nature too.
• Money is consuming us.
• They did think that it was too easy to read!

This piece was most probably the least successful as it was definatly too easy to understand which I will go back to and see where I have gone wrong.

I had painted a black blob on my wall earlier last week and it was a mistake but as they started to look into what it may insinuate, I found maybe a new direction that I could take, this is what they said:

• The black blob looked like the entrance to another world.
• Looking into a void.
• This looks like a map as it has sharp edges.
• This links with the New York piece.

I am really going to have a look into the New York piece and see how it related to this black void I have created on the wall about it.

Next Steps

After we had a talk about what they thought the work was trying to say, I gave a small talk about the things I was thinking during the process of making these pieces of art.

After this we spoke about the next steps that I could take in order to push my work further, this is what was suggested:

• Produce even more receipts and cover the studio wall.
• Bring in the relationship between the receipts and a map.
• Produce more of an impact with the trees on the polystyrene head by making the tree bigger.
• See more of the black splodge.
• How the black splodge relates to its surroundings and the pictures it could be grouped with.
• Look for specifics and keep digging.

This was a really good exercise and am looking forward to carrying on with the ideas given and getting ready for the next Crit group!