Shaun Project Space Crit: Kate Kneen, Davika Kergon, Jess Avery & Alex Jones
I attended another Shaun Project Space Crit on Wednesday, my fellow peers and friends listed above had to show there work to be critiqued and receive feedback, I will talk mostly about Kate Kneen's artwork but will have a section on each person.
Kate in semester one used to be more collage and print based but has recently progressed into working in sculpture, she has made magnificent, life size sharks from plastic straws which is quite contradictory, she has used manmade materials to represent an animal and a material which has been very harmful to sea life, but I feel this was a specific choice to use plastic, I think it gives it a seriousness. The life size sharks were suspended by fishing wire, another material which is harmful to animals, the sharks really dominated the Shaun Space, it was a powerful piece, it generated lots of conversation, there was a humour to the artwork but an underlining seriousness for animal welfare which did come across. There was a smaller shark which I noticed kept rotating and spinning, I didn't know if this was a part of the display, if it was intentional then it really worked but if it was an accident then just claim you meant it, the movement aspect made the piece come "alive", it was as if it was swimming.
Kate also showed an unfinished piece, a wearable shark head, which caused many laughs when James and Alex both wore it, there was a playfulness to this giant, scary, sharp teethed shark. There was a performance element to the piece, it was really interesting and was a direction that she hadn't really thought about or intended for it to go, but she seemed up for the challenge. As I work closely with Kate I would like to see her maybe make other life size creatures, like a full 8 foot bear similar to her prints she did for semester one, it might be difficult for it to stand but im sure she would figure it out.
The next person I will talk about is my dear friend, Davey. Davika Kergon's work was a large digital portrait print of her partner with red and blue painted geometric shapes and a smaller screen print of her friend with multiple different coloured layers which gave it a blurred effect, I remember James saying that it reminded him of R-B-G ink prints or a glitch effect. I really liked Davey's work, it wasn't because she is my friend, her work is very different to most peoples and it sets her aside, there is a photography aspect to her work which not many people have dabbled in. The large print is a nice size, the colours are bold and direct, I like the way she painted the geometric shapes, they were flat as if they were printed out and not hand drawn. However, my favourite of the two was the smaller more delicate print, there was something about it when I saw it that was "so Davey" the colours of the print were subtle, they were vibrant yet gentle, they complemented each other and the image sort of faded into the paper. I mentioned to her that it might be interesting to see people with painted geometric shapes on their faces and then take a photo, instead of doing it the other way round, she seemed interested in this idea.
The next person was Jess Avery who displayed one large painting which used spray paints and marker pen lines, the image created was of these octopus tentacles and swirls, Jess had previously mentioned that the sea, the endless depths and sea creatures, she found off putting yet interesting. The colours she has used are rich and deep, the purple she has used you could get lost within, there is also a vibrancy to the marker pen she has used which gives a nice contrast. Jess is changing direction with her work and has started to look at using pop culture from TV shows and series she has currently been watching. I will be interested to see where she will be heading to see what she does with that in comparison to the underwater animals.
And finally we have Alex Jones, Alex's work was very different to what had previously been shown within the crit, it was a sound piece with a live performance aspect which Alex had written and composed. There was also a painting along side the musical piece which represented the sounds, the different colours within the painting representing different sounds and noises made from the piece, not being musically inclined but from using digital software that works with sound, I could kinda understand what the painting represented. I really enjoyed the music and the artwork, it was really emotional and atmospheric, I was captured and I was enthralled by the sounds, the looping was particularly interesting, as there was a build up of sounds, a resonance. There was a few mishaps but if Alex would have played them off, then I would of thought that it was apart of the piece. I think that Alex has a really solid and unique idea for a project which definitely stands out. I genuinely look forward to hearing and seeing more.
