After a silent tutorial at university in which a group of peers spoke about my work, what they thought it was about, what worked and what didn't, I have reassessed some of the materials I am using, what they represent and also how to display my work. The comments were very helpful as I now know what I am not portraying through my work. The first point that was made was about the fingerprints within the materials. I am glad these were pointed out as I wanted to make my project personal to me, therefore including my own identity, and this was noticed through the fingerprints and indentations of fingers Next, there was slight confusion as to why I had used various materials in the same way, was there a point to this or was it purely for experimentation purposes in order to see which texture was suitable? Yes. I am still investigating into different materials, and will remove these previous experiments from my studio once I have my final outcome. My pieces appear interactive, however, my peers were not too sure whether these were interactive pieces or not, whether they could touch them and manipulate them themselves. I am leaving this a mystery to the viewers, as my tutor explained, you seem quite intrigued whether you can touch things or not in an exhibition, and this creates a sense of the unknown, a little excitement almost. It was pointed out that the more three-dimensional objects gave a greater sense of aggression, which is what I am trying to portray, and that these objects could easily be put by themselves to view individually, otherwise, there is a lot to take in when you see the layouts on the wall. I am going to look into different ways to display my work more appropriately, such as hanging solid objects. Of course this poses the problem of removing the control of the positioning, which would relate to my work as stress and anger can be quite uncontrollable, some people just leave it to run its course. I could also display work on plinths for people to walk around, and investigate the shapes at all angles, allowing them to conjure up their own ideas of what the work is about.Finally, the use of the silicone material was criticized for creating its own shapes due to the materials properties.My peers commented on the silicone being 'flesh like' and relating to the body, as it is smooth and a little malleable, but also suggested the use of a smoother material such as butter or lard. I have taken these comments on board and have experimented with clumps of lard varying in sizes. I created the shapes so they appeared very three dimensional, however, conditions out of my control, such as heat, can manipulate the objects and change their form. again, this can relate to my context of stress as it is usually out of your control, and people sometimes have a "melt down", thus the lard illustrating this quite literally. I have developed the idea of creating various shapes individually, into combining these into one larger sculpture, that could still be changed in many ways. I am leaving the lard sculpture to form itself naturally, and I will document this at regular intervals.
