Shaun Project Space - Crits

Kate Kneen

This Weeks Crits are delivered by the following students -

• Kate Kneen

• Davikia Kergon

• Jessica Avery

• Alex Jones

To start of this weeks Crit, we started of by addressing the elephant in the room or should that be shark in the room. Entering the Room we were forcibly greeted by a great white shark. The floating shark was so unexpected and it was a refreshing start to the crits. The first thing I noticed was the orderly manor all spectators took on when approaching the shark. Everyone formed a circle around the shark and at all corners of the room everyone's chair was propped towards the shark even though there was other work placed, unknowingly everyone's attention was grabbed by the sharks. Kate had presented 3-sets of Shark. One Shark was made out of paper mache which had a hole at the bottom so the sculpture could be worn as a mask. The other two sharks were made out of the same material, hot glue and straws however there was a scale difference in size. One appeared to be a small baby shark protected by the large beast of the Mother Sharks. The Straw Sharks were suspended from the ceiling using wire, this then added an unintentional element of movement. The wire would slowly rotate the sharks in the wide open space, With the wire allowing the sharks to rotate ever so slightly it constantly changed the position in which the viewer last seen meaning the viewer can see the shark from a new perspective. A final interesting aspect that was discussed in Kate's Work was the intentional use of material. Most believed Kate uses the plastic Straws to create an ironic message as how these none biodegradable straws are harmfully injuring and killing sea life. However, Kate just used the materials as it was a cheap and sturdy way of constructing her work. I find the idea of Kate using recycled material which harms the animals to create the sculpture to really propel her work and help standout with both a powerful and meaningful message.

Alex demonstrated a live performance using his guitar, this was the first sound demonstration to be performed at the crit, it was a revitalising change to the repeated routine of viewing mounted work. Alex music is made to correspond with his environment, Alex first started his performance of by playing the guitar in its stereotypical fashion, then introduced both loop pedals and effect pedals to disorientate the layers and pitch within his strings, after few minutes of a repeated loop of sound. I was surprised by Alex bringing out a screwdriver and then continued to play the guitar with a screwdriver. The screwdriver amazingly gave off this alienated pitch and brought a whole new dimension to the performance. To progress forward in his project Alex wants to create paintings to correspond to his music. I am interested in seeing the finish products displayed together and to witness the difference on how myself as the viewer will link the two-works together compared to the artist himself.

Jessica Avery