Cragg - Cutting Things Up
Critique Handbook - Chapter 1
The handbook shows us how to critique an artwork and show what questions to ask when critiquing.
Many people think that form is the container that holds the content for an artwork. In its simplest term, form is the mean by which a person gives substance to their idea.
Form differs in sculptures and paintings. In a sculpture, the form of that sculpture is its weight, density, mass, proportion, and the three dimensional shape. In a painting, form is there in the painting's composition, texture, pallet, and line quality. In a sculpture, all it's form is made up of an infinite number of shapes.
In looking at a sculpture, we begin by looking the relation it has with the space it occupies. We have to ask where the sculpture ends and the space that it occupies end. This is important because the negative space in a sculpture is important. Even if the artist have not considered the space around their sculpture, the space around it is still important to look at.
The way a piece of sculpture is presented affects its form.
When a sculpture is suspended, it allows it to defy gravity. In a critique, we have to look at why it is suspended and what it suspending the sculpture. So the question of is suspension really necessary is raised. Is suspension the best choice for the sculpture or might it be better off freestanding? The materials used to suspend it is important also. If a heavy chain is used to suspend the sculpture, it becomes part of the sculpture.
When using a pedestal, the question is raised of where the artwork actually begins. The pedestal can be seen as a way to raise the sculpture to a person's eye level. The pedestal also affects how a person percieves the artwork. The height and where the pedestal affects the perception of a sculpture.
The way a sculpture is propped up can affect how a person views an artwork. The materials used to prop up the sculpture becomes part of the artwork. Do the prop ups look like it was done to be part of the sculpture or does it look like something done in the last minute?
From this reading, I'm starting to question if all the props of guns and swords I made are sculpture pieces. They are made for costumes and I usually take photographs of the props without the costumes. So do those props have the same meaning when they are away from their costumes, away from it's context? Or do they have enough meaning on their own to be a free standing piece of art?
1 comment:
Hi Wilson. I feel like your "props" fall in line with traditional museum display mechanisms. That is, they are designed to disappear and be a non-issue, and to to just elegantly present the "real" art object. If you made some kind of techno weapon and the device that held it out from the wall was made with the same materials and perhaps swoopy styling as the weapon itself, then it would count as "part of the art."
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