Final evaluation of the Counter culture project:

Our counter culture brief has been the first project of the year. At the beginning of this project I chose to revolve my work around the environment and environmental activism as this falls under the category of counter culture and is something that I strongly believe in. However, while starting this project I found myself having difficulty connecting to the subject in a creative way and in turn this made me feel uninspired and unmotivated. So, to rectify this I began to do a simple walk every day along the same route and photograph and document different kinds of litter that I found and collected this evidence so that I had photographs and material to use as a starting point. 

In the beginning of the project I was greatly inspired by DaDa artists, in particular Hannah hoch and her collage work. I think that this would be a simple and easy first development for my own work as I had gathered lots of materials to work with. I was particularly interested in the way that abstract art can still be used to convey powerful messages even though they do not appear to be straight forward. I made sure that the majority of the materials I used were biodegradable as I thought that it would be hypocritical of me to create art that challenges and condemns the actions of others while using harmful materials in my own work. I only created one collage and further developed it using oil pastels as I not only wanted to add more colour and dimension to my work but I wanted to experiment a bit more with mixed media. I liked this first development, however, I was still feeling a disconnect between myself and this project. It was as if something was missing and I believe that this is unfortunately reflected in this piece, as when looking at it it's nice and conveys the point I was trying to make but I feel as if it comes across as lazy, like I have chosen the easiest route. 

Because of this disconnect that I was feeling I began to have a series of one on one sessions with my tutor which I believe greatly helped the further development of this project. We spoke about different artists to research and exploring the use of some more materials. I began to come up with a few more conceptual ideas, one being having ready made bags of packets and plastic that I had collected and photographing them nicely in various positions, inspired by artists such as Duchamp. The other was to create cut outs from printed photos of the litter that I had documented earlier. I began with the first idea which I liked the results of, however I found myself thinking that it seemed a bit too simple for my liking. because of this I thought about integrating the images of my bags into the cut outs of the other litter which I thought worked really well and they seemed to blend in perfectly with everything else. 

I once again had another one on one tutor session about the next step of my project and the materials that I would be using, I decided to explore some new materials such as cardboard while still keeping them all biodegradable so that the message and ethics of my project was still clear. Through this new development I believe that I began to really connect with my work and I found myself feeling invigorated and inspired. I created about ten of these cut outs in various sizes out of cardboard and paper, and while taking photographs of them I feel that I was resourceful, handy and I was able to create my own makeshift photography studio. I believe that this part of the project allowed me to explore aspects of being an artist that don't revolve around the physical making of the work, I found myself at home and in need of an area to take photographs and despite my limited resources I was able to make it happen quickly, which is a skill I will be continuing to work on. 

Another thing that I found helpful throughout this project was talking to, and discussing my work with my course mates. I believe that this helped me greatly as I was able to hear unbiased opinions and ideas and it helped me to look at my own work objectively from and outside perspective. In fact, discussing my work with my course mates is what helped and inspired me to create my final images for this project.

I really liked my final images, I think that by having my cut outs in a different, more natural setting I have been able to convey an alternative tone within my work, that has changed from my starting point. I believe that the physical piece combined with the natural surroundings are able to take on a more humorous aspect that was not present within my earlier work. I liked this development a lot as I feel that if you convey a message with humour it will be better received by the public as opposed to portraying a subject and conveying a message harshly. If it's done harshly I believe that people tend to get defensive and sometimes even aggressive, whereas humour allows a softer approach that allows people to initially open up easier. 

One aspect of this project that I believe I need to work on is my time management. I found that because I felt this huge disconnect during the beginning I was more inclined to get stuck on one thing which then left me little time for further developments and this is something that I will be making a conscious effort to improve on during my next project. However, one aspect I found helpful was doing artist research. durning time in which I felt uninspired I was able to help rectify this by researching artists that were in someway linked to either my chosen topic or the materials that I was using. I found that this helped to push me out of slumps and gain inspiration and motivation to carry on. 

I believe that this first project has gone well, I have experimented with different and new techniques and materials as well as listened and uses peer and tutor feedback to better my work. I believe that I have created  a solid final piece that I am proud of and I think that the development trajectory of my work has been clear throughout this project. I will continue to improve my work and skills throughout my next projects. 






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