Protest Project Critique

(PICTURE COMING SOON!)

The critique for my protest project went very well! The class was able to communicate the intentions behind the work and they enjoyed its overall attention grabbing quality. We talked quite a bit as a class about the importance of making work that has an extra spark that grabs the viewer and makes them want to look at the piece harder. The subject of protest and especially a subject close to home made it difficult to create a piece like this, that acts as translation. I think most of the works were informative and provided more descriptive aspects about the Bill in Wisconsin as opposed to creating some kind of translation between the work and the concept.

Fortunately, the class felt that my project provided compelling visual interest to the viewer while I provided subtle hints that allowed the work to act as translation. By realistically portraying the hands adorned with excessive jewelry I was able to translate the concept of the upper class controlling the middle class through the use of a puppeteer handle. The strings carefully loop around pennies with faces of middle class workers in both the public and private sectors, furthering the concept of control and identifying the pennies as a metaphor for the middle class and how they are viewed by the wealthy business corporations of America. The private sector and public sector faces are divided between the two handles to represent the fact that big business has manipulated the middle class to war with itself. It heightens the fact that we are responding exactly as they wish; turning against each other while their tiny percent of wealthy America remains sound in a time where cuts need to be made. The back of the pennies show Madison's capitol building to identify the local issue. It was suggested that my use of the transfer methods were well resolved throughout the piece since it is represented in both the transfer of the drawing and the transfer on the pennies. The 3D aspect to my piece was also suggested to be an added quality to the work overall. The fact that it wasn't just a drawing added to the viewer's immediate interest in the piece. I'm glad I decided to take the risk of making a 3D piece. I say risk since most of my attempts at three dimensional work often end up being fairly pricey at the cost of my failed designs. This piece, like I predicted, was made and then completely reworked before the final critique. Although it demanded quite a few resources, the time and money spent created something that I am quite proud of. I enjoy the face that I was able to create something different, since most of my work is protest, but in a much more subdued manifestation.