END OF MODULE EVALUATION

SB1 - CRITICAL ANALYSIS - FINAL ESSAYS

SB3 - Study Task 8 - EVALUATION OF SYNTHESIS - PROPOSAL

SB1 - Study Task 8 - REFLECTIVE PRACTICE ESSAY PLAN

PLAN

1. What were my initial enquiries?
- Exploration of commercialism and aura in art and the choice of the artist to conform to one or the other. Rules of taste driving artists towards high art pretensions and entrapment within art institutions or into kitsch consumerism. Does the accepted view of art actually inform our taste, how vulnerable are children to being told the definition of good art?

2. What were my rationales for image making? 
- To visually realise the conflict between aura and consumerism through re-appropriation of high-art imagery and pop culture icons into kitsch iconography.

3. How do my images relate to the overarching theme?
- While the images explore the issue of kitsch and ridicule of high art, I have strayed away from the focus on rules of taste and challenged this by satirising art, capturing a transgression of the institutionalised view of art taste.

4. Why have you used certain materials?
- Working within the constraints of a kitsch aesthetic, I have worked primarily with metallic, holographic media, in eccentric colours conventional to kitsch objects. Collage has enabled re-appropriation of existing images inline with this formulaic aesthetic.

5. Which image from the image analysis essay is best reflected in my journal?
- Koons' 'Michael Jackson and Bubbles' resonates most with my visual work as I have paralleled Koons' flux between high art conventions and pop-culture tropes through media and subject matter. While Koons' sculpture explores pop-culture, kitsch imagery in a high art context and traditional media, my work explores high art imagery against pop-culture icons through kitcsh tropes and garish media. 

7. Relevant quotes and key theorists from triangulation essay to include?
- 'Rules of taste enforces structures of power' Sontag
- The reproduction artist as 'the lesser genius who absorbed the Pure Forms and Styles of the Master and attempted to give these some sort of currency by applying them to objects of everyday use' Munari
- 'Tretchi committed the cardinal sin of commercialising his work and selling it to the masses' Ward
- 'The masses, thanks to reproductions, can now begin to appreciate art as the cultured minority once did' Berger
- 'Taste is not free and its judgements are never merely 'natural'

Quotes not from triangulation essay:
- The original of a reproduction as 'an object whose value depends upon its rarity' Berger
- 'When a painting is put to use, its meaning is either modified or totally changed' Berger

SB2 - Study Task 8 - FINAL JOURNAL RESPONSES

Progressing towards more resolved outcomes in my visual journal, I have maintained the kitsch aesthetic through colour and imagery, but within this series I have used drawing as opposed to collage to communicate the icons of pop and art culture. I feel that the hand drawn approach really enhances the kitsch through a DIY aesthetic, something which enhances the satirical nature of commercialism religious imagery. The pop-up approach has enabled me to bring crafting into my visual work, channelling a novelty approach suitable to the kitsch theme. These pop-ups have also enabled me to explore context and audience, echoing the devices of children's picturebooks.

In line with my rationale and discussions with peers, I have resolved my journal in a picture-book context, exploring the ultimate destination of commercialisation of art and the conflict between pop culture and high art. Maintaining the collage approach explored throughout my journal, this linear piece echoes the style that has been developing over the course of the journal, while introducing a new tone of voice. The cut-paper characters maintain the bright, pop colour palette, whilst achieving a clarity important to their place in the hierarchy of components. My intentions throughout the project have been to explore the relationship between viewer and taste and this final image seems to effectively capture the act of viewing art in a subversion of high art conventions.

SB2- Study Task 8 - EVALUATION OF SYNTHESIS

SYNTHESIS

The combining of the constituent elements of seperate material of abstract entities into a single or unified entity (opposed to analysis) the separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements.

A complex whole formed by combining.

My process: WHAT/ WHY/ HOW?

1. Analysed the starting quote from within the theme of aesthetics by defining key words and meanings around the issue of taste and power structures.

2. Selection and analysis of sources and texts relating to taste and power structures, focusing on opinions of artists, art critics and theorists to understand the wider issue.

3. Deconstruction of texts and quotes relating to chosen theme, focusing on issues of commercial art vs. the high brow.

4. Collection and selection of imagery - kitsch/ high art/ art in education

5. Triangulation of quotes and ideas, forming an argument regarding the issues of taste and expectations.

6. Drawing similarities between ideas and imagery, starting to unpick existing imagery. Why is high art taught to children? Why is art ridiculed by the kitsch?

7. Responding to observations and ideas through visual research of abstract interpretations of the flux between commercialism and aura, exploring kitsch colour palettes.

8. Exploring the impacts of media and colour on the theories identified in critical writing.

9. Capturing a satirical tone of voice through exploration of language and image.

10. Consideration of an ultimate resolution based on the blurred boundaries between high art cultures, pop culture and the kitsch. 

SB2 -Study Task 7 - Visual Response FURTHER JOURNAL DEVELOPMENT

Furthering the development of my visual journal, I have re-considered the use of existing imagery, now considering more theoretical values surrounding these particular images. Religious imagery has been pivotal to the visual research carried out so far as I feel it is grounded it both high art and kitsch matter. With the viewers engagement with religious imagery as either holy and deified, or kitsch and trivial, these figures seem to hold power, and as such, I have explored the weight of religious imagery.

 In my written work I have been critically analysing the issues around Tretchikoff as a commercial artist. Many argue that Tretchikoff was a commercial artist, serving the masses. This has provided the rationale for the above image as I wanted to explore the crux of Tretchikoff as an art icon. Does his work really challenge high art structures or does this transgression simply re-conform? Collage has enabled me to satirise his paintings and re-establish my visual devices.

Language is continuing to inform my practice, enabling me to explore more direct messages. I feel this image is the most successful in my journal so far as it explores a satire appropriate to the kitsch culture, whilst capturing a very real conflict been culture and anti-culture. In light of these developments, I will now explore how I can realise my visual and theoretical research towards a more refined and succinct outcome.

SB2 - Study Task 7 - Visual Response RESPONDING TO RATIONALE

Following on from points discussed in my rationale, I have continued to develop my collage responses to issues of high art and consumerism, continuing to focus on the impact of language on the immediacy of my work. Starting to work with shape based elements, these collages seem to echo post-modern examples of graphic design through geometric shapes. These playful shapes seem to develop the kitsch aesthetic channelled throughout the journal but now introduce a very contemporary aesthetic which achieves a clear contrast against re-appropriated images. While more direct and single-word phrases were complimented in my previous work, I feel that I need to develop the 'what's his face' image to achieve more weight on the Christ image and perhaps have the language displayed in a linear format to achieve clarity.

Moving away from collage, I have also explored paint as a means of re-appropriation and ridicule of high art imagery. Painted marks have enabled me to explore quicker, simpler modifications, something I could explore further to achieve more simplified, yet direct responses. The metallic paint has worked effectively to maintain the kitsch aesthetic.