Exhibition Crit

I had a seminar and missed part of the crit, so my work was not spoken about, and in a way I think I am glad. As it was, so much was said that I felt applied to my work. I think I attempt to say too much in my work. I think I always have. I'm influenced by artists like Taryn Simon whose work tends to speak to us about fairly specific things, but I'm realising that there's a simplicity to work like hers - a simplicity that my work is missing. She might be photographing a large group of orphans, and that photograph may say a lot about society and people, but this is not achieved by piles of symbolism and captions and drama. The photographs show us complex emotion in an uncomplicated way. Michael Landy's 'Break Down' said so much about material objects and what they mean. It spoke about more than just consumerism or the way we live, but this was all achieved by a very simple action. The act of destroying all his possessions may have been dramatic, but it was a clean, simple idea. And the thought and discussion that came out of that was immense. The work itself was not what was doing the wondering and rambling.