Shelby Fleming Mid-term Critique

Mid-term Critique Statement

While exploring new media and conceptual directions a few patterns have emerged.

Repetition has been a continuous theme in my process and becomes apparent in many of my pieces. I find the process to be therapeutic and visually appealing. Repetition is also cogitative in a daily routine where there are often no interruptions or surprises.

Color has been a new emergence in my work through direct and non-direct application. I have been trying to push my color tolerance, going against my better judgement in most cases.

New media explored have ranged from beads, pbc pipe, feathers, bubble wrap, etc. As I explore I am trying to keep in mind the context and the viewer’s relationship to the materials and how that relationship might assist or hinder the concept.

            A few themes that have occurred include, childhood nightmares that affect adulthood, fragility of an individual, wearables that affect perception, and mirrors that reflects the viewer and cellular structure that exist in their body. 

Newish Statement

Gender roles have always been present in my upbringing in the form of my parents. Behaviorally my parents fell into a stereotypical post World War II version of the, “white picket fence” or “American Dream Home” in which the woman’s role maintained the home while the man’s role was to provide monetary support. This unspoken system of gender roles creates tension, conflict, and under appreciation as each role struggles to understand one another.

In my altered chair and ladder pieces I look to convey the same tension and conflict that is present in the domestic setting. I view the found objects as stands in for individuals, the ladder representing the monetary support, while the chair provides domestic support. Both of these found objects have a supportive role and we trust them to fulfill their function. However, when altered doubt forms, can the supportive object serve its functionality let alone stay together? In this the object has lost all functionality.

In Men at Work I look to create solutions that break down the system of gender roles and create an equal among genders through role and environmental reversal. In this series the blue-collar male role is transplanted from his typical role, of monetary support, into the household setting where he fulfills tasks of the domestic role. Conversely in the performances, Man Made and (soon to be) Men Working the female role is transplanted from the domestic setting and placed into the blue-collar environment where she performs the tasks that were assigned to the male role.