Crit Week 1: Reviews

At this week's crit exhibition, I got the opportunity to see work from both Year 1, 2 and 3 – it allowed me to build dialogues with people I has never met before, but, more importantly, allowed me to share my thoughts and ideas of their work. These three projects were varied in both their medias and ambitions, developing complex and intriguing pieces. My Three Peers for feedback were Yusoo Park, Rowan Parfree and Jaz Bartlett...

Yusoo Park's work connoted very relevant and relatable ideas of the younger generation and their reliance of the media, with the symbolism of tv eyes suggesting a sense of hypnosis or brainwashing. This idea of being brainwashed and desensitised by the media was further developed by the raw aura that the flickered editing provided - bombarded with truth and lies all at once! The work itself is rather simple, yet it carries a sensitive, controversial and complex social message about how much the media controls and sensors our thoughts. Park's scale is advantageous as it is easily visible, using film to illustrate how media is fed to us as a society. This could have been developed to extend to an immersive space, rather than merely an object, perhaps adding audio as another element to add to this sense of chaos and disorientation. I suggest that she takes inspiration from the dystopian genre to keep this raw and almost haphazard impact, looking at "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess or "1984" by George Orwell and totalitarian control over the media...

Jaz Bartlet's Project considered the idea of personal space, showing explicit documentation of her daydreams when she is on the toilet, using this space as a refuge of sorts from the outside world. There is an essence of "Toilet Humour" in that it presents itself as a rather light-hearted concept. This piece is very relevant as we are all well-acquainted with the ins and outs of a loo, making me raise my own consciousness in regards to my train of thought when I am in the toilet. I like that it is presented in a real bathroom, rather than the representation of one, genuinely reacting with the space in a spontaneous and candid fashion. It is almost comical that the Post-it notes are so pretty in contrast to the reality of what actually occurs behind closed doors... However, I feel it would have been beneficial to develop this further to create an instillation of a toilet in the studio. I recommend Valerie's note from "V for Vendetta", an online article entitles "Toilets as modern art and the fluxes movement" and Yoko Ono's "Toilet Thoughts", 1968...

Rowan's question was "What is art?" - due to the ambiguously abstact nature of the question, it was difficult to even understand their aim as the subject of these three observations seems to hold no relevance. However, there is intrigue in ambiguity; I have interpreted these crude and sexual pieces to explore identity and gender, perhaps even challenging conventional figure drawing for something more primal. This could hold relevance to the Transgender COMUNITY, WHO HAVE BEEN OSTRISIZED FOR SO LONG, seeming to question gender expectations. Specifically, the strength of this work lies in the colour: red is synonymous with bodies, sex, women and blood, however perhaps they could use blood instead of paint to carry a more dramatic message, perhaps presenting this collection on a larger scale, taking inspiration from Louise Bourgeois: "The Family I", 2007...