I really think that my understanding of artwork is really bad. I couldn’t understand most of the classmates’ work while others seemed to think it obvious… I like Joe’s and Niko’s work best, especially Niko’s. I was amazed again by how Niko’s so good at making use of different materials and electrics. For my photographs, I got feedback multiple times that it should be dynamic. I did think about it but I just didn’t know how to realize it. For the object, Adam said it seemed a failed object, like something happened and it’s left there. I’m actually a bit confused if he meant this work was a failure or the object looked upset. Niko mentioned light was affect by magnetism, which was very interesting and I didn’t know about at all.
Yesterday after the open day, I had a talk with Jiao Shi and I realized the difference of how we approached art. I always extract elements and put them back together to convey a meaning in a very specific way while his work was more open and sometimes he didn’t have an answer for its development, which made sense when it came to why I understood Joe’s and Niko’s work while he didn’t really understand. Joe and Niko extracted elements and put them together as well, similar to my way of making art. I do find it troubling when artists don’t know their exact concepts about every detail of their work or why they start to create the work. I ask myself every time when I take an action to my work why I want to do it this way. I guess it’s true it brings many limits and constraints to the work but I’m not sure how I would deal with it. Jiao Shi said my work relied on my explanation a lot. But I don’t think it is certainly the problem of my way of making art but it’s probably due to the connections between objects and meanings are not strong enough, because I do think many successful artists use elements this way as well. Then I realized, the artists I especially liked and understood, which were not many, tended to use elements. It is very interesting. I have really never thought about another way to make art and I still don’t know how to do it or if I want to do it differently.
We also talked about space and how I thought Jess’s work more about capture of sound. I really didn’t see the connection with space. And I said I thought space’s just air. Jiao Shi found it charming haha while I thought it’s just my understanding of the simple definition.
I have never trusted myself in art actually. I can only make sure if it makes sense to me but it’s really subjective. The only motivation for me to do art is self-expression, which actually closely related to expecting others’ understanding. I don’t know.
Eva Wang 