Mid-Term Critique Reflection + Photos

Midterm Statement

Jivon Batres

Of What Remains: Choose Your Own Path 

Paper on foam board

35 x 54 inches

Stand Off of the Self

Paper Collage Installation  

Size not Specified 

     Within this first piece, I have decided to create a board that is inspired by the choose your own adventure book genre that utilizes collage work. This project focuses on one of the core themes of choosing your own fate and moving on from one’s past. The reason why collage was chosen specifically was due to the feeling of life itself feeling fragmented and forever changing. This project focuses on the experiences of moving on from the expectations of others and the peer pressure life. Taking place within the core aspects of life that provide a profound effect on oneself such as family, friends, and the eyes of society.  However, through this peer pressure, others are willing to guide you through your life and change your perspective for the better.  With the creation of this project, I was heavily inspired by the artists KAWS, Aya Takano, and Diana Pieri.

With this second artwork, I decided to create a diptych and a diorama that utilized the collage within the Wild West subject matter. This artwork depicts two figures during a standoff which reflects a clash of an older type of thinking with a newer type of thinking. Most importantly, this type of new thinking leads to seeing things in black or white. The diorama features a figure and his horse in an empty desert. This is to simulate that though this new type of thinking may be helpful, it can also have the side effect of being alone with one’s self. With the creation of this project, I was inspired mainly by the works of KAWS and the works of Henri Matiesse, and Joana Koerten. 

Midterm Reflection:

The feedback that I received from the faculty group was mainly focused on my project one rather than my project two. The feedback that I received from the first project was about how exactly I was changing the genre of the Wild West and how this cliche has been done countless times. However, the most significant comment that I received from project one was how the story from the diorama reflected on the diptych. From the standpoint of the diorama, the diorama was perceived as a way of reflecting the facade of the new life as the text from the cardboard matched the back of the diorama figures.  The differences that were perceived in what I had in mind for project one were that the negative texts on the project acted as a way of saying how during the Spaghetti Western genre, it was cheaply made and often resulted in actors being treated poorly. The faculty group believed that this was a reflection on my own life which was an objective I initially never had in mind  This was mainly due to the flimsy nature of the diorama. 

For my second project, the feedback from this project was overall very positive. This was due to the craftsmanship of each of the collages that I created for the story. Furthermore, it was the way that I was able to tell a story with just images that led to the success of the works. The most notable comment that was given was that there were too many extra features that were unnecessary for the project. Such as the torn book paper on the project, the lettering that covered the images, and the story that was below the images.  They mentioned that it would have been best if these parts were either removed or at least put to the side of the images for the presentation. These extra elements created the perception that this work was gaudy and too overdone with there being a reliance on the text of the work to explain it. 

When considering the time management for projects one and two, I believe I managed my time more perfectly in project two rather than in project one where I was still figuring out how to use my time more wisely. This led to project one feeling more thrown together while project two was more constructed and refined. By managing my time more effectively like in the second project,  I can accomplish more and create better work. Going forward, I hope to set more flexible deadlines for the next project to create more effective work.

When considering the next steps going forward, I should consider telling a story without even putting in anything extra such as text, and rely on visual cues to tell it. This will lead to a shift of using visuals to tell a story and a study on how comics function. Telling a story without words will be a challenge that I will overcome with the next project. Furthermore, the next challenge that I must overcome is to focus on the simplicity as well as the complexity of using paper and how certain types of paper can lead to different meanings. However, one risk that I want to attempt is to revise the structure of the paper diorama and to see how I can rework it to make it more complete rather than having it look like it was thrown together. What I want to create next is to focus more on paper and how paper can change while also remaining the same material. I also want to focus on how collages and different levels of paper can change the context of an image. The next project might focus on using images to tell a story which might lead to a creation of a comic like work.