SMP Critiques

The first critique I attended was Reena's sculpture. It was a large sculpture up on the wall of wooden planes that had color (redish colors) on some of the edges. She said she started off with boxes but ended up using planes. The sculpture was supposed to convey a slow sliding movement and balance that was set on an imaginary diagonal grid. The large scale of the peice was supposed to give a feeling of movement. The sculpture was made up of many constructed of many smaller pieces of 4-5 planes. Those pieces were then put on the wall but not connected, but is supposed to appear as if they are. She said she had a fascination with rectangles and that is what drew her to creating this piece. When they critiqued her, they said that her ambiguity about the reason for rectangles lead to the piece having no purpose. They questioned whether the piece was finished, and when she said yes, they seemed skeptical. They asked her if she had sketched it out and she said she had it layed out in her head. They said that was her downfall. They said they felt like the piece was moving from left to right but not from front to back. They then said that after a certain point, the piece just gets repetitive.

The second critique I attended was Ashley's. She had three different pieces that were all constructed with fabric and embroidery. Her creations were meant to resemble collections in her family's home and how collections are displayed in the home. The pieces were meant to be autobiographical and to resemble collections her family has. The first piece is a bunch of small shadow boxes with different size "buttons" (that she recreated with embroidery). Apparently she recreated all these buttons from her head. The second piece was recreated from a photograph and it was a piece of fabric that had 4 pictures of spoons created with embroidery. She tried to recreate the tarnish in the spoons as well. The third piece was a pice of fabric and was supposed to be a bunch of embroidered old fashioned oil cans. When they critiqued her, they said her pieces just represented objects and that there was no significant part of the pice that represents sentimental feelings or emotions. They said that the oil can piece was confusing and problematic. You couldnt tell they were supposed to be oil cans unless she told you. They said the spoon piece was good and seemed resolves. They said that the button pice was confusing but had potential. The didnt know why she chose to put each individual button in its own shadow box. They felt that the shadow boxes obscured the piece. They said it was a presentation issue.

The third critique I attended was Tom's photography. His was the creation of a photobook. In his photobook, he had paired up images that were similar in their composition. His intentions were to show connections between things in the world around us. It was about an appreciation of life. Very few of the pictures were actually staged. Then he had a few pictures on the wall that did not have a place in the book but he really liked them. He said these pictures he would put up by themselves and not in the book, just because he felt they were really good. When they critiqued him, they said that they were concerned that people would flip through the book quickly and would want people to investigae. The want him to consider the ordering of the pages and also to consider what should be in the gallery. In my opinion, this was the best of the critiques I saw. I liked his idea and I think the pictures worked very well.

The fourth critique I attended was Vanessa's. She had a display that went across an entire wall. It was supposed to represent and play off woman in today's society and how we have the tendency to listen and read magazines and take seriously and listen to what they say. The piece was like it was a journey of self discovery that was directed from a silly magazine. It started off with a cartoon looking drawing she did of a family of foxes. One young female fox is supposed to be the narrator. There is a drawing of her reading self help books. And then a blown up Cosmopolitan magazine cover. Then there is a note saying she discovered Cosmo and has to find herself. There is this a small suitcase. Then there is a map with postcards attached to every place she visited on her religious journey. Then there are magazine pages with fashion styles on it. Then there is letters, cards, and a calender that say she is found a man. So she found love. Then there was evidence that the relationship didnt work out. Then there was a paper that implied that she was looking into plastic surgery. In this piece, Vanessa used a combination of different things such as drawings she did, real items such as the suitcase, hand written letters, magazine pages, and cards. While the piece was interesting and there was definitly a lot to look at, it was a little messy looking and seemed unfinished.