13 August 2009

The crit

I had a crit yesterday. I wore my suit. The idea was to present myself well and my work shabbily, i.e. the opposite of what most students do. The work was drawings and slogans on A4 paper sellotaped crudely and wonkily on to my studio wall. I probably should take a studio photo again soon.

The crit went pretty well. Some of the slogans got laughs. There was a nice comment about being juvenile (that referred to a particularly infantile slogan). My assessor also made some interesting remarks about not needing to be obsessed with contemporaneity. After some initial doubts, I've come round. I've got a fair bit of confidence in him. Hell, anyone who likes Daniel Johnston is all right by me.

There was one particularly interesting question from the floor about whether my interests and opinions have changed over the years. The answer is both yes and no. There's definitely a core that hasn't changed.

I've mentioned before how I first discovered dada in the Encyclopedia Brittanica when I was 13. That was it until I found a copy of Hans Richter's Dada: Art and anti-art when I was 15. I still have that copy, though it's unreadable cos I cut it to shreds so I could stick pictures on my wall.

That was when I discovered Francis Picabia. His pictures stood head and shoulders above the rest. They really blew me away. It's now 24 years later, and I'm still obsessed with dada and still can't get over good Picabia is.

The main thing to come out of the crit was being put on to Henry Flynt, described as an artist no-one looks at, a musician no-one listens to, and a philosopher no-one reads. Story.

3 comments:

s. said...

You are my everlovin' / celestial darling.

David Cauchi said...

The quote I used was 'I've got a mind-blowing philosophy/I don't know exactly what it is.'

s. said...

Your post reminded me that I haven't listened to my Henry Flynt cassette in about 13 years.

visitors since 29 March 2004.