SMP II Spring 2007

PHASE II: Starting Point Presentations and Identifying Critical Issues

It’s time to get verbal and analytical about the work you are creating! A major part of your SMP requirements includes you writing and talking about your artwork. Critical analysis means breaking down the totality of your art making activity into its component ingredients. To do this you must examine your intentions, your sources, and the meanings that arise from a thoughtful interaction with your artwork. To begin this process I am asking you to identify and write about 5 of the most important ‘critical issues’ raised by your work. Remember an artwork might engage an issue explicitly (through overt subject matter), implicitly (through tangible inferences present in the work), or tacitly (through background activities such as process and research). In identifying your work’s issues you should consider all types including personal issues, art form/ style issues, and broader cultural issues. An artwork’s issues often stem from the artist’s direct intentions and the work’s meanings but they also often go beyond what is obvious.

For instance, a painter of landscapes might have the general intention and meaning of replicating the “beauty found in nature.” But thoughtful critical analysis demands much more be considered. First, even on the overt level, much more specificity is called for. Does the landscape painting in question present an image of beauty that we recognize as “traditional?” If so, a central issue of this work has to do with culturally formed notions of the beauty and how they have come into being and the cultural attitudes that they indicate. Maybe this landscape painting includes or does not include signs of human presence. This might raise the issue of a specific type of human relationship with nature. By default, the painting posits a definition of nature through the character of what is depicted and how it is rendered (formalist/style issues) Besides the issues surrounding beauty and nature maybe there are also issues implicit in the goal of replication. Is representation based on perceptual processes or photographic information? Does this lead to questions about what is real and how we know our world?

ASSIGNMENT: Each student will present their plans and ideas for the body of work that will be their SMP II exhibition. These 'starting point presentations' should include the following:

- At least one artwork that represents in some way the work you will create for your exhibition (plus any past work, pictures of art works by others, sketches/ models etc. that might be your leaping off point).

- A written submission that contains:

1. A description of your current thinking about your body of work for exhibition including any specific installation ideas.
2. An overview of your selected five critical issues (no less than 5 pages)
3. Questions (no less than 5) you want to pose to yourself and the group
4. A work schedule specifying timeframes and goals

DUE: Completed and emailed by 1/29 4 pm

GROUP REVIEW:

Starting point presentations will be delivered on Monday, Jan 29^th (20 minutes per each person). You will present your work and summarize your critical issues. The group will respond, ask questions, and comment on potential source artists.