CONNIE HOPE

Group Critique Lead by Angus Wyatt

In order to understand how others interoperate the work I have been producing, the group critique created a space for me to better understand my own work. Ultimately I found this session to be a tool to gauge whether the intention had been successful. And also to analyse how other artists are communicating their ideas.

Symmetry was of course recognised. The organic forms are read whilst paralleling them in the mind with something that these could be but are not. Its like trying to compare these shapes with something that already exists in order to register them into reality. Much like inkblot tests, that examine human psyche and allow us to understand a personal meaning that is triggered visually.

It was noted that within my composition, a central point is formed. This being where the two wooden panels meet and form the cross. A signifier perhaps. It was interesting to see how we gathered around the piece, automatically, people lowered themselves to the ground. Taking this low view point I wonder whether viewers want to be level with the cross formation. Its as if people did not want to tower over the work. It seemed they wanted to be below it.

The bisymmetry carried within the paper cut-outs formed certain start and end points through the work. This is where detail can become influential to the context I place my work within. The more dense locations in the paper work contrast with the less elaborate but vast span of the larger cut outs. This is important in creating a more impactful spectacle. Making the smaller parts smaller and the larger parts larger. I should draw from methods in traditional Chinese paper cut outs and observe the immense detail with which the work is created.

Paper-stock did come up. I am hesitant to introduce colour at this stage in my process. Reason being that I want to avoid convoluting what I haven’t quite figured out yet. Saying this, my next movements will be to further the spacial qualities in the work. The cross can become raised and no longer situated flat on the floor. I also want to explore the possibilities of forming a more monumental structure. I shared my plans to create a clock-hand-like formation that spirals up from the ground. Angus mentioned the power and symbolism of the cross as something diagrams the separation of two levels, or two worlds. Two realities. I will consider introducing more geometrical shapes within the organic cut outs. And to see how this would interrupt or heighten compositional qualities in my work.

Angus questioned the origins of the paper cut outs. Are they based on shapes that I see out in the wold? I responded by saying that I find places for the shapes once they have been created. Until now, working intuitively with shape creation has lead me to form links to nature and anatomical likeness. I should now consider how I can translate existing shapes into the work, more like replication and repetition as a method of mimesis rather than squeezing things into a category I can get away with.

It was interesting to engage with another artist who created mixed media collages of nuns doing naughty things, constructed into a cross. To discuss the rich histories that religious art and its connotations has to offer. Iconography and symbolism is so intertwined in everyday seeing. But also to understand that religion can be an accessible gateway to complex ideas of identities and representation for people who consider them selves faithless.