Project #3 Critique

I decided to follow a new direction for this project. Experiencing the current pandemic situation and having to stay quarantined for safety, I was having issues with myself and the artworks I was creating. I felt like it was unimportant to keep making the same kind of sculptures in the current moment. I felt like there were more pressing matters to attend than making cute, fun, little figurines. Plus, all that was filling my mind was anxieties about knowing if my family and friends were safe after checking the news all day every day to see how close and in which locations new cases of the virus were being found. I felt the need to create some more literal art piece which reminded me of the chapter on language in our book, which reminded me of Jenny Holzer's work with the large projections and light signs. I figured I could express what I was feeling and being surrounded with by working in a similar way.

The bottom sign is more of what the news casts were telling people to do, and the top sign is what I was seeing friends and family post on the internet. I also added the part "We are here because we are here.." as a reference to a time in WWI were British soldiers stopped to sing this in the battlefield over and over as a form of expressing how they felt trapped in battle and danger without knowing even the reason for them to be there.

Done