Critique Reflection 4: Final
With the completion of the installation we realized that it wasn’t really quite complete. There is a portion of this installation that will only be complete after the interactions have happened with the viewers and the flowers have been inserted into the bud vases. Even then, there is a time element that elongates the “work in progress” stage because it will change as the week progresses and the flowers begin to wilt. That passage of time and the fact that it never really is complete is an aspect I did not realize I so strongly enjoyed. In future works, I will consider that effect more and see if there is a way to develop it further.
In previous conversations about the work for capstone, I delved into the idea of identity. It developed into a comparison between heritage and culture and an understanding that my decisions are all made by the interaction of the two. It did come up though that when I present the work itself, I don’t necessarily address the relationship between heritage and culture in either the artist statement or me talking about it even though it does inform how I make aesthetic decisions. This lead into the topic of having a responsibility to address race in my work.
The question that I’ve been considering over the past two days since the critique is this: Do I need to talk about which part of my identity my decisions come from?
Yes and no.
Yes – I like the conversation it starts about how I am not Indian or American. I am Indian American and my art reflects that. It is influenced by both because I am influenced by both. It follows the fact that art is a reflection of the artist.
No – It starts an entirely different conversation about the work itself. The focus is taken away from the idea of creating a new experience and puts it on race. As an individual in a minority group, I think it’s important to educate and inform others, but there is a line that gets crossed when I begin speaking about those aspects. The focus then becomes more about race than it does the actual intent or reason for creating the work.
For this body of work, I am leaning towards no. Again, it is important to address topics like minority groups and representation, but this body of work is aimed at creating a universal experience. I like that there is potential to talk about aesthetic decisions and more specific driving points, but the work is about remember and experiencing and I want the main focus to be on that.
In my opinion, I will speak about representation and racial influence when the subject of my work is representation and race. Until then, the work is about the topic I choose, and unfortunately, once the topic of race is introduced it is no longer accessible to a portion of my potential audience and that goes against one of the main reasons for creating the body of work.
Moving forward though, I want to consider representation and race as the subject of my work. Even though this set of work is aimed at creating universal experiences, I would like to try creating more of a challenge for viewers.