Studio-Intensive Day 9, part one

Studio-Intensive Day 9, part one Well, last day of my plan. It has been a headlong, packed week that is intended to project my development forward. Forwards and upwards. Would have liked more feedback and input but, the nature of things is that everyone is always so busy. This means that I have to work harder on my own development through deep critical engagement. Continuously. I have tried to include a certain amount of visual and other events in the week and, because it is degree show time as well as end of academic terms, there is a lot going on. The value of this is really to see what is currently happening, what art trends there are, not so I follow them but so I get a measure of contemporary art and its directions. The two degree shows I visited were, as always mixed. Some incredibly good work and some not so good. What did strike me though, was how the ambiance of the shows compared, both against fine art departments and within different departments. There can be a stultifying atmosphere, a sort of self-consciousness, that occurred at one of them whilst the other was alive and vibrant. why does this happen, is it the art, the space, the people, the curatorial aspect or even the visitors? The spaces had a similarity, I visited on private view nights so visitors should have been similar. The art and the artists, well, one was better than the other but given they were both student shows it shouldn’t matter. But I actually think it was how the space was curated. One had more spacing, a sense that there was little relation between pieces. Obviously in this sort of show, there are many different styles and media but there needs to be flow, a wisdom to how each piece relates to another. This will be a major point to explore and think about. I very much enjoyed Scaling the Sublime at Lakeside Arts, this really was a highlight. Both the work and the ideas were fascinating and hope to go again before the end.