Rodriguez- Crit #1

Developed Project

I wanted to experiment with different methods of working with found material. I created different versions of spheres in order to depict a person, place and experience from a personal memory. I attempted to allow each sphere to embody something different based on use of material, texture and color.

 

 

Experimentation/Small Works

 

Artist Statement

   Asking the right kind of questions generates meaningful conversation involving opinion, experience, fact and/or logic. My art process begins with the contemplation of ideas and subjects that exist in the world around me. Pondering upon the questions why and how, has brought me to where I am today as an artist. Most of the questions I develop are personal (my experiences and how I interpret the world around me). I consider my work to be mostly autobiographical.

      Recently, I focus on the idea of memory, in relation to myself. In the past, I have focused bulks of my work on either family habits and upbringing, identity, human emotion and interaction, or culture, because it is what was most relevant to me. I wanted to break down the idea of why and what in relation to who I am. My work focused mainly on the one of the most self- evident ideas of what makes you, which led me to the obscure aspect of what makes someone: memory, thoughts, opinions, ideas.

      I am a junior at New World School of the Arts Senior High School. I was raised in Miami, Florida by Dominican women: my mother, grandmother and aunt. Other than my brother, I have had no male role model in my family, which I think subconsciously influences the way I think through and produce my work- being that I have only witnessed females, in my family, achieve what a male normally would. In terms of home life, lifestyle and family, I do not consider myself limited in what I do or say because I am a woman. Since my experience seems to be different than that of the normal American lifestyle, in the sense that I was not raised by a mother and father collectively, my family and I did not have a settled house and lifestyle from the get-go and instead worked our way up to it, it inquires me to fully interpret what it is that made me into who I am today, and who I will become in the near future.

     I consider my audience to be anyone who can relate to my experiences directly or indirectly.  I intend for my work to have others examine their ‘being’ in a similar way to how I have, questioning themselves in every aspect of “why?” and “how?” they are, and to also have others compare their lifestyle, upbringing and experiences to those of mine and the people they surround themselves with; I believe that the way in which we generate habits, ideas and opinions is essentially based on how we were nurtured since we are technically a modified extension of our parent’s bias and opinions due to the fact we would model them at our the most vulnerable  stages in our life and later on analyzed and developed what we would take from what we learned or “modeled”.
    My goal as a young artist, is not only to expand my work conceptually, but also to improve my work and process in terms of skill and efficiency by trying new approaches to problem solving. Through the process of my work, I would like to rediscover myself and reassure myself in my art practice.

 List of Artists

Aurora Molina,   Ashley Bickerton,   Tom Friedman,   Joseph Beuys,   Ai Wei Wei,   Meleko Mokgosi,   He Xiangyu,   Josh Kline,   Titus Kaphar,   Michael Vasquez,   Sarah Sze,   Richard Deacon,   Zhang Huan,   Marcel Broodthaers,   John Latham ,  Valerie Hegarty

Student Website

 http://crcristy05.wixsite.com/mysite

 Studio Proposal

Studio Proposal Format and Guidelines

I.               Research (Introduction to a topic)

a.     Artists/Art movements

    He Xinagyu-

·         Experimental practice

·         Material testing + conceptual laboratory

·         Diverse, social, political themes

·         “Adjust and guide people's perception through the material changes within”

·         Uses range of media to convey philosophical ideas

·         (In reference to ‘Palette Project’ and ‘Wisdom Teeth’)

·         uses multiples with differentiation

·         differentiation + likeness

·         “everything we create is not ourselves”

     Marcel Broodthaers

·         Nontraditional materials – egg shells ( in this case)

·         ‘Assemblage’ technique

·         plastic arts

·         status of artworks as merchandise

·         theories on artistic production

·         temporality of this artwork

·         *chance and accident

·         materials fell apart from fragility and the passing of time

    Sarah Sze

·         “precise randomness”

·         placement of dried paint strips

·         broken glass, torn paper, and colored string

·         delicate +detail

·         scattering items, precisely

·         how the location of pieces would affect a visitor’s experience

·         sense of discovery and serendipity

·         “how does something become valuable?”

·         provoke uncertainty with everyday objects

·         “I want the rawness of seeing a work develop in front of your eyes, but to do it in a way that doesn’t feel contrived or theatrical”

·         “tinkers” with the piece as it’s exhibited- nothing stays in one place because she changes her mind about placement

    Richard Deacon

·         “material and its manipulation are core areas in what I do”

·         erasing materiality

·         removing identity of the medium

·         functions with interaction of viewer

·         ability to think in lists

·         “continuity between the world and materials”

·         intuitive artist

    Josh Kline

·         “someone's world is always ending”

·         “this generation moved into early adulthood”

·         produce the hands of creative workers

b.     Other areas of research

   Assemblage

http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary/g/a_assemblage.htm

·         similar to collaging

·         involves 3-d object protruding from a 2d object

II.             Path of Inquiry (Deeper investigation of a topic)

 What direction will I take? Focus.

·         I am going to develop an experimental process with my 3-d work while still having a set end product and concept in mind by attempting to make spheres with multiple materials.

    What does the road look like?

·         I would like to discover different methods for each material I use. As I make the spheres I would like for each to have their own identity through its materialization and process.

    Where do I think it will lead?

·         Since a sphere is a primitive shape: What other, more complex shapes can a sphere lead me to make?

III.           Development of Thesis (Beyond the topic) - thesis statement

·         I would like to conceptually draw onto the idea that memory is based on singularity, no one memory or event is ever the same in the mind of two or more people.

IV.            Material Goal (Defense of topic? Purpose of Experimentation?)

·         I would like to become familiar with various materials, so I’m not limited to using “what I know” in my future sculptural work.

V.              Action Plan (How will you get there?)

a.     Small works – define them according to need/purpose

·         My small work is a pre-experimentation to reassure myself that I’ll continue to enjoy engaging with that material and not get bored of figuring out different ways of manipulating it.

    Deadlines of Small works

·         I plan to have the small works accumulate along with the process of my piece, so the small works would be due the same time my final piece is.

    Benchmarks

·         Spend at least an hour tampering with a material until you decide not to work with it.

·         Technical- Play with the idea of texture, color, and form

·         Conceptual- Play with the idea of relation and preservation

·         Have minimum 5 different materials in your final piece

    Hard Deadlines- critiques

·         I would like to work continuously work on this piece for at least 3 weeks.

VI.            Self Assessment

    Process: Creating spheres while discovering ways of manipulating material and intuitively tinkering with the sphere to relate it to my concept.

   Formal/aesthetic: I would like for my spheres to be laid out in a manner that is similar to how one thinks (a compilation of things) but in a way that’ll showcase both the difference and likeness within each sphere.

c.      Conceptual/communicative

        Memory and personal experiences tied into the making and product of each individual sphere. I want the end product to showcase a physical representation of a past experience, based on color, texture and form.