Feedback on work and statement

[kierstin]

Due dates are approaching really quickly and I'm rushing to get everything together.  I was hoping you friendly people might offer some constructive criticism of my portfolio and statement as they exist right now.  I'm applying to sculpture programs at SAIC, UT Austin, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, VCU, Mason Gross, and possibly UCLA.  I've been out of school (Tyler) since 2012 and this is my first time applying.  I have no idea of my chances. 

 

You can see my work here: kierstinsiegl.com

 

 

Statement

 

It is helpful for me to think of my sculptural practice as the construction of a piece of literature, striking some balance between poetry, fiction, formula and history. This framework allows for problems of language, meaning and value to be confronted through the symbolic system within which they are embedded. There is very little text present in my work, but each object and physical process maintains linguistic qualities which overlap to create a larger linguistic structure. My fascination with the way symbols shift and evolve in a given culture comes primarily from a deep interest in the way meaning is established and conveyed -- how information is internalized, ideas grow, and belief is cultivated.   

In practice, this problem is fleshed out through references to the Old Testament and the aesthetics of bridges and architecture, and draws from writings by Barthes, Gadamer, Kierkegaard, and Sontag. Through the use of models and replicas, the sculptures play on a shifting sense of scale. Like a schematic drawing which superimposes detailed description onto a general description of the whole,  the vast and the mundane are compressed onto one plane. Found objects are assembled alongside those I have fabricated by hand, imbuing the objects with questions of originality and value. The work is about its own making, and aspires to embody larger systems of communication and interpretation as their methodology is negotiated through seemingly opposite characteristics: romanticism in contrast to utility, style to content, figuration to literalism, and symbolic to real. The work poses these qualities against each other in a way that emphasizes the inherent ambiguities of signification and understanding.

My hope for the work is to create opportunities for the viewer to process information gathered elsewhere -- to explore the complexities of connotation and implication, and develop new connections and ideas. I see my project as what Barthes describes as "...a mode of thought (or a 'poetics') which seeks less to assign completed meanings to the objects it discovers than to know how meaning is possible, at what cost and by what means."
 

[kafralal]

Your portfolio looks good. I particularly like your two most recent sculptures, and appreciate the middle detail of "Graft."

 

Your statement is a little hard to follow. I'm not sure I could give a summary of what you are tryig to say. Some words stand out but not any specific ideas.

I think you need to back up some of your claims.

For instance:

"This framework allows for problems of language, meaning and value to be confronted through the symbolic system within which they are embedded." How?

Also, your idea of schematic drawings is different from mine—for me schematics are usually pretty general...so maybe you should make it clearer. " Like a schematic drawing which superimposes detailed description onto a general description of the whole, the vast and the mundane are compressed onto one plane" This is a little fuzzy.

 

"The work is about its owm making" How?

You can obviously write well, but I think you need to make all these potentially great ideas clearer.

 

"My hope for the work is to create opportunities for the viewer to process information gathered elsewhere." I would question this. Is this really what you want to say because it sounds like you are saying that you want to illustrate other people's ideas.

 

It might be better to finish with your own words, rather than a quote.

 

Hope this helps.

[FredMaple]

I am also looking to apply this coming year for MFA Photo and things are down to the wire. 
I would mind some feedback on this statement and my work. 

Thanks in Advance and I would love to respond to anyone else who needs any second eyes and opinions. 

Applying to: 
Tulane

Uni of Indiana, Bloomington

Columbia College Chicago
 

The Human Environment  //  http://jhbrowning.com/human-environment

 

In Human Ecology, the study of the relationship between humans and their environment, there are three types of interactions between man and nature: physical-biological, social-cultural, and human-built. These photographs are an attempt to compose and document both candid and created moments to form a visual look into Human Ecology, specifically the relationship and interaction between nature and humans.

 

Like Robert Adams and The New Topographics, the photographs document the changing landscape of our progressing life and changing culture as well as, our continued separation, isolation, and domestication of the natural world. Robert Adam’s underscores the beauty of nature even in the midst of human use and overuse and captures our unique relationship with the land. Unlike Adams, the work is a more intimate view into this overlap of man and nature. Even though we are so detached from the natural environment, we still consciously attempt to connect with and include natural elements in our human habitat.

 

These natural reminders both real and artificial stand to provide a way for us to understand and connect to the natural world. The photographs search for the daily harmonies between the natural and the human worlds, each providing a perspective of duality yet also one of inclusion.

[kafralal]

I am also looking to apply this coming year for MFA Photo and things are down to the wire. 

I would mind some feedback on this statement and my work. 

Thanks in Advance and I would love to respond to anyone else who needs any second eyes and opinions. 

Applying to: 

Tulane

Uni of Indiana, Bloomington

Columbia College Chicago

 

The Human Environment  //  http://jhbrowning.com/human-environment

 

In Human Ecology, the study of the relationship between humans and their environment, there are three types of interactions between man and nature: physical-biological, social-cultural, and human-built. These photographs are an attempt to compose and document both candid and created moments to form a visual look into Human Ecology, specifically the relationship and interaction between nature and humans.

In the previous sentence you broke down "nature and human"  further, so I think you need to say that you are going to work with all three interactions or specify which of the three you are interested in.

 

Like Robert Adams and The New Topographics, the photographs document the changing landscape of our progressing life and changing culture as well as, our continued separation, isolation, and domestication of the natural world. Robert Adam’s (Adams') (images..photos? specify) underscores the beauty of nature even in the midst of human use and overuse and captures our unique relationship with the land. Unlike Adams, the (my?) work is a more intimate view into this overlap of man and nature. (How so?) Even though we are so detached from the natural environment, we still consciously attempt to connect with and include natural elements in our human habitat. Skip the space here because I believe the next sentence backs up what you just said.

 

These natural reminders both real and artificial stand to provide a way for us to understand and connect to the natural world. The (These?) photographs (are my?) search for the daily harmonies between the natural and the human worlds, each providing a perspective of duality yet also one of inclusion.

 

If you can go longer, it might be good to say something a little more personal about what you are thinking—something that makes your work specifically yours—for whichever group of images you choose to submit. I think it would liven it up a little.

 

There are some typos in the text on your website.

[kierstin]

Thanks Kafralal, I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond.  I agree that I need to be more clear...  I often have this problem with my writing. I am going to re-address the places you pointed out and further elaborate on other aspects of the work.

 

best of luck! 

[Loric]

Just a quick comment.. on my screen your images look pretty small. I think it's just a matter of your website being optimized for a lower screen resolution setting.

 

http://www.neowin.net/news/study-1366x768-now-the-most-popular-screen-resolution

 

Set your page to be best viewed on the most common resolution. As it stands now, i'm seeing everything over on the left with a massive void of whitespace on the right (presumably where a lower resolution monitor cuts off).

[nosering]

Your sculptures outshine the painting/drawing section greatly. I looked at the paintings first and thought it lacked professional attitude - they read as sketches or copies of online images of celebrities. To give the benefit of the doubt they be invoking Luc Tuymans, but its a stretch to insinuate that. Your sculptures carry a completely different tone, are photographed nicely, are interesting and conceptual. If I were you I would omit the painting/drawing section from your website, especially since its not your main dig!

[nosering]

p.s. Just saw page two of the painting page, maybe you are invoking Tuymans? Maybe omit the ballpoint drawings, the two paintings of people on the second page are stronger - maybe it just needs a statement/context. I would be interested to know the conceptual values behing the paintings!

[kierstin]

Your sculptures outshine the painting/drawing section greatly. I looked at the paintings first and thought it lacked professional attitude - they read as sketches or copies of online images of celebrities. To give the benefit of the doubt they be invoking Luc Tuymans, but its a stretch to insinuate that. Your sculptures carry a completely different tone, are photographed nicely, are interesting and conceptual. If I were you I would omit the painting/drawing section from your website, especially since its not your main dig!

 

Thanks for the feed back!  I really view the painting and drawing stuff as just for fun, not bearing any of the conceptual weight that I place on the sculpture.  I think about what it means to reproduce a photo, and my own limits in that project, but I'm not nearly as invested in that problem as I am in others dealt with in the sculptures.  I do enjoy Tuymans, but I'm just not familiar enough with painting discourse to claim any real relation.  I think your advice is good, and I'll disconnect that page before admission committees see any of my mindless 2d work.

 

Should I feel guilty for thinking of my painting this way?  I thoroughly enjoy it as a hobby, and don't view it as part of my practice.  I feel like painters are often touchy about this subject -- they believe that the act of painting has a sort of intrinsic spiritual quality, and to copy photos (without a relevant argument) is sacrilegious.  Anyone feel this way? 

[nosering]

I know exactly what you mean, I'm a "painter" but I'm working within what I consider to be the end of painting (a la Steven parrino), therefore I limit myself from using paint materials to move away from what you mentioned about the strange self-indulgent nature of painting. My work is pretty sculptural in order to invade the space of a painting - that being said when I see painting I think a lot about its meaning, whether it needs to be painted - if it's relevant. Looking at your website I was confused by the difference between mediums , I'm a fan

[nosering]

(Posted before I finished writing)

I'm a fan of the minimal website, I only post my current body of work, and rarely anything older than a two years. So with those opinions I would still say theres nothing wrong with hobbies! The "satisfaction" of painting probably helps to cultivate that machismo attitude towards painting throughout history into post-post-modernity. I would just keep it off the professional website and maybe unto a tumblr or fb page instead.

[nosering]

You might be interested in Douglas crimps the end of painting and Thomas Lawson's last exit:painting. Both short articles that deal with paintings death at the start of the post-modern. Tuymans paintings need to be painting - which is why they are so successful

[kierstin]

Thanks! I will check out those articles.