Group Critique - February 18th

I will continue to post everything onto my blog because most of my other classmates have not created links to theirs as of yet.

During this critique, we looked at work from artists who had very different ideas, and used very different techniques to illustrate their work.

Ilana Cloud - We visited Ilana's studio in order to take a closer look at her work. Ilana continued to use canvases that contained abstracted paintings and different signatures on top of it. She had a variety of these paintings in that some where black and white, and some used very vivid, bright colors. In addition, she used a variety of sizes to illustrate her work. I have always found her work to be very primitively modern, which draws my eye in to look at her pieces. I enjoy the color palette she uses, from brights to very darks. I made a suggestion to her in one of her pieces, and perhaps others, that it would be interesting to see hand, finger, or even footprints on some of her canvases to emphasize the primitiveness her work exudes.
     Ilana also described to the group the way in which she plans to show her work in our thesis show. Ilana described a structure that was almost like a combination of a dome and a tent in which she would hang her work all over --- from floor to ceiling --- and engulf the viewer in it. I thought that it would be interesting to have different footprints leading up to the entrance of the tent to underline how she wants to express different cultures and nationalities.

Princess Belton - We also visited Princess Belton's studio where she showed us some of the paintings she was working on. Princess showed us a 3 paintings in which she glamorized Black models portrayed in hair books that are in over-exaggerated poses and heavy make-up.  In addition to these paintings, Princess also showed us an illustration of a woman who seemed regular, and had natural hair. This woman stood out to my classmates and I because of it's simplicity and because she was facing us straight on, as opposed to the other models that were turned to the side. Although Princess has changed her ideas for the thesis show a few times, her underlying concept has remained the same --- African-American hair. I believe that she has changed her project once again, but I am not sure what she plans to do now.

Jenny Chang - Jenny showed us some mock-ups of ideas she had for her graphic design project. Her idea is to take common phrases that are said in the United States and jumble them up, so they are wrong and not understandable. For instance, one of her sayings was "Like a good farm, state neighbor there." She intends to jumble up American phrases like many Americans jumble Chinese lettering. Many individuals get Chinese symbols tattooed onto their skin and do not even understand the culture behind it, or what it means. I believe Jenny is trying to express how it feels to the audience to misunderstand someone else's culture. She intends to place these different phrases on silkscreen in order to put them on t-shirts and hang them in the gallery. I think it would be more interesting if she had people wear the shirts and walk around during the reception. This would help to turn her piece into more of a discussion.

Alexandra Berger - Alexandra showed us some pictures of the sculptures that she is creating. She is using a mixture of materials, including a foam that hardens. She said she intends to make an environment of her project using items she's seen in some of her dreams. I believe she wants to make her objects glow in the dark, which I think would add a surreal quality to her overall piece and emphasize what she is going for.The term she used to describe this was "lucid dreaming". I feel that her project ideas are very interesting and fun, but she should narrow her focus a little bit more before she creates her environment in the show. Perhaps she should use one specific dream that she can remember very well instead of a combination of a few of them.

Art Critique - February 4th, 2011

This week it was my turn to show work that I've been doing, and I decided to show a sound piece I worked on last semester because it directly corresponds to the work I'm thinking of doing for my thesis. The sound piece used different samples of individuals speaking, including singer/actress Jill Scott. I recorded part of an interview that she did with a prominent news team and added it to a musical accompaniment I created in GarageBand. I also used recordings from conversations had between some of my friends regarding people of different classes/racial groups. I secretly recorded these conversations knowing that they would be altered or never spoken out loud if I told them. Additionally, I recorded some of my friends reading the infamous "Crime Alert" emails that the Rutgers Police Department sends out to students and faculty. Without manipulation, these notices sounded almost exactly alike, because the description was extremely similar every time --- Black male, wearing a hoodie, etc, which is something that I've always noticed and something that has always bothered me.

Upon playing this track for the class, all of my peers enjoyed listening to it and felt it was successful. They focused on what was being said and eventually got into a dialogue about what it meant, and what I was trying to say with my piece. They understood that with this information I was trying to spur conversation about this issue, and why it exists in the first place. Meghan especially liked how I related the concept to Rutgers directly. Originally for my project, I was thinking of doing a more over all view of race relations in America, and hadn't thought about narrowing it down to Rutgers. I thought it was interesting how she explained the idea of individuals being molded during their college years and basically being educated to fear these types of people. College is meant to prepare you for the "real world" and the rest of your life, but should part of that education be to place a further rift between different races by sending these messages?  I feel it is an interesting idea being that it is where the audience will be and it is essentially their backyard. However, I want everyone who views my piece to relate to it, or become interested in talking about it. Not everyone who sees it will be from New Brunswick, or attend Rutgers. I do not want to limit myself, but also, I do not want to overextend myself either.

I will continue to think about these topics as well as different suggestions given to me by the other artists in my group.