Midterm crit

 *cross-posted in senior port crit blog

Sitting through the first set of crits and seeing their personal responses I definitely expected a similar outcome. Everyone was happy with their crit and what happened.

Personally, the critique did nothing for me. My classmates barely had anything to say and once they started to speak up, it was about my previous work. While there wasn't a whole lot of silence, the speaking was mainly me, and not my peers. The feedback about my previous work was positive but not what I was looking for. I included them as context, not as my main focus. They talked about how they were aesthetically pleasing and what I could do to make more sequences. This was frustrating. I would like to do other pieces like this with different materials but I was stepping away from it.

Last semester pieces I showed:

Artist Statement--Othering

I have come to the realization that the parts of my identity that I take pride and comfort in set me apart from what is considered normal and acceptable in our society. I never really felt as if I was part of any particular culture and would rather stay neutral and be different. In the simplest of terms, the "other" is one who is different. People are often dehumanized in situations where certain aspects of their identity are not the majority and are seen as opposite or even inferior. Society puts these pressures on minority groups and further marginalizes them daily. I am interested in who these "others" are and how discrimination affects their lives.

 Even though I was disappointed with the response, or lack of, I felt very confident in my speaking. I look forward to reviewing the tape from the crit.

  I showed two pieces similar the the one above. I just wanted some feedback as to what people were thinking. I do not see them functioning as actual photographs in my final work. I was more interested to see what people had to say and compiling their responses. Most of the responses were that it has been done before and doesn't relate to my work. I feel as if they were missing the point. The picture is documentation, not a product. Anyway, I want to continue these portraits because they fuel my concept.

I also showed the previous two pieces. The grid includes stills from a video I did writing on myself and the other image is a shot done after wards.  

Right now I just have decisions to make. I changed my artist statement to be less limiting and now it is too broad. I would like to find a happy medium that includes my idea of othering and also biraciality. By keeping my original concept in some form I feel more connected to it. While the response was little I found that people could still relate to my work. This is an important observation because I still exist as a minority within my class.