Critique of Elaine's Installation

Aesthetically we appear to enter the installation from 'backstage'. The number 38 on the door piece is back to front and the shoes curve to the opposite side of the space. We are not part of the installation but an intruder to a situation.

A suggestion of time is created with the shoes being positioned in a queue- like fashion. The objects themselves appear to be waiting to exit the imagined building. The formation curves into the wall which gives the impression that the queue begins outside of the space. We are made to feel that this is a section of time, that this situation has occurred before we were here and will continue afterwards. There is something unnatural about the shoes in their pairs, we tend to see this happening when taking off our shoes and tidying them away. The shoes shown here seem to be showing motion, exaggerated by the curve, but static because of the close pairing. This aspect of the work is confusing and slightly odd.

Using latex to create an imprint the artist has picked up the lead detailing and dirt from the original object, it appears to have shed its skin. The fragility of the material and elevated positioning of the piece allows for the surface to flutter in surrounding movement. It appears ghostly and quaint, as though it is in fact a memory.

The installation talks of time and of past memory, which is most successfully communicated through the door piece alone. Upon viewing the separate aspects as part of the same artwork the language seems less convincing. The contrasting physicality is an unsuccessful attribute to the overall piece. It leads us to question why the original door has not been used, or why the shoes have not been represented using latex or a similar material. The colours and weight of the shoes are of this world, they are real objects positioned in an unreal, and unconvincing way. The door piece is a sensitive representation of a real object positioned in a way that creates a more poetic and and subtle narrative on its own.

"Collapse of the Given"

"Man creates or discovers objects and destroys them; he endows them with certain qualities and powers, and assigns them values. Objects are the measure of man's ability to restructure his reality according to his needs. We can see objects, touch them, grasp them and perceive them mentally. They are the immediate physical mediators between man and the world, the means by which he perceives and even attempts to understand the working of the universe."

Finkelstein, H. Surrealism and the Crisis of the Object

Poetry and Dream, Surrealism and Beyond (Tate Modern)

"For the poets and artists of the Surrealist movement, dreams stood for all aspects of the world repressed by rationalism and convention." Matthew Gale, Tate Modern.

This collection of work has inspired me, it has led me to find strong bridges between Surrealism and my artwork. Currently my intention is to strengthen the communication of my work and differentiate between art therapy and fine art. I believe that my answers may lye within the works and artists focusing on Surrealism. I have selected three installations included, and reviewed them as separate bodies along with a background of the artist's intentions.

Jannis Kounellis

Untitled

1979

This installation is the first piece in the collection, we see the space used in a theatrical way merging drawing with object, reality and fiction become one. Here the birds are said to symbolise "the death throes of imaginative freedom", it appears the artist is using the simple line drawings of desolate streets and elongated buildings to express a stale and uninteresting existence, one where the final amounts of creativity are being destroyed. The simplicity and lack of drawing skill involved is intentional and allows a connection between the artwork and the onlooker, as though this scene could be created or imagined by everyone. I feel that this work talks to its audience by allowing this communication to take place.

Robert Therrien

Red Room

2000-2008

Here we see a mixed media installation, the objects within are usual and every day items. The onlooker is invited to peer inside the room but not to enter it. A narrative is created which describes an ownership to the belongings and the actual room itself. According to the artist in this scenario the objects are that of "a Father, a Mother and two small children, all with red hair." I enjoy the idea, in a fine art context, of an imagined ownership to an object, installation or sculpture. It provides a fantastical element to the artwork and allows us to question, is this artwork or reality?

Joseph Beuys

The Pack

1969

Beuys talks of an emergency object "...in a state of emergency the volkswagon is of limited usefulness, and more direct and primitive means must be taken to ensure survival." The back of the vehicle empties multiple sledges onto the gallery floor, positioned in a way that allows the objects to take on living characteristics. The work relates directly to a plane crash where the artist was rescued by nomadic tartars, who saved his life by covering his body in animal fat and wrapping him in felt. Here we see a personal narrative being communicated through the universally appreciated, human survival. Although as the onlooker we may not have experienced a life threatening scenario we can relate to objects as commodity compared to those as necessity.

In all three examples a relationship seems to take place between the artwork and the onlooker, as though we imagine ourselves as part of the created reality. The nature of the work allows us to surrender to a narrative, the story becomes convincing and realistic. For example we do not believe that Red Room belongs to a family, however on a level we allow ourselves to make believe the scenario as part of the poetic fairy tale.

Critique of Jackson's Work

The reality of participating in a critique of work that is still in process can make for a more interactive discussion with the artist rather than with the work itself.

Using repeated screen prints allows an immediate manufactured and cloned quality, which in turn encourages ideas in consumerism and mass production. The skulls had an obvious pop art feel to them, comparable in presentation to Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe prints.

I felt the three times repeated imagery was a classic way to make something, or should I say, anything, look like 'art'. Through history it has become a significant number for portraying words, images or objects in an aesthetically pleasing way. The effect this had was that we were more trusting of the work as a finished piece rather than something in progress.

The artist described how the images move from the simple representation of the skull to an adapted version. There seemed to be a strength in this idea, the skull being a symbol relating to death, something that perhaps should be respected, was being mutated much like the design for a cartoon or computer game character. I also liked the relation back to pop art, that something as popular in fashion as the skull was being shown as a portrait, almost like the new celebrity icon.