Crit show!!

I had originally planned to show my final canvas with the edited film of me making it projected on top. The film was edited to show only the above shots, so when projected on a canvas on the floor would give the illusion of a life size me making marks on the canvas. i had planned for a slightly dark area with room to mount a projector from above. Unfortunately the space i was given couldn't accommodate this as it was too high with nothing to support a projector, in a corridor so no room for the work to be spread on the floor and much too bright for the projection to be from above as edited and intended, however, I finally got to show my three large scale canvas together as a trip-tic. I was advised to hang them in a row, on simple hooks, however after trying this it didn't feel authentic, it didn't show them to their fullest. Ideally these pieces should be stretched and hung, as intended but the tutors advice has been to leave them lose....god knows why. They are intentionally large and dominant, trying to capture a whole landscape in a few meters of fabric, i felt hanging them made them shrink and droop and didn't show their colors and textures to the max. it looks a little pretentious. The end result of the way they were hung made them look like a theater, a stage to be played upon....i liked it. I was mildly frustrated as a lot of work had gone into editing and preparing the work and found having to show the work differently at the last minute really stressful and upsetting. If i had known the space i was being given in advance i could have planned something else. Still, a learning curve.....dont go into a show blind, get exact locations and space size agreed before hand and never change the work to fit someone elses needs at the last minute. onward! 

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What was the feed-back from the crit show?? 
​The feedback was a little schizophrenic. The head of year came along as i was setting up and told me my work was Phudo-abstract which was a little confusing considering the amount of well known artists that make work by simply lobbing paint at a canvas and still call it abstract yet mine is Pseudo, was a little confusing. The critique from the students was good, everyone said they liked it, the scale and the film, the sounds. There were no negative comments which was nice. Another tutor said that she hated the sound track too it, that it was a bit new age. I explained that the sound was from a recording i made in London near parliament square, a normal day in our capital, the wonderful mix of cultures and traditions....it cannot be helped if London is that way, The idea was to have the contrast between urban and rural textures. it was a strange crit as all of my fellow students loved it, and all of the tutors had negative comments to say. I was mentioned in the presentation as being ambitious, it is always considered ambitious....which i guess is a good sign. Maybe i dont want to be ambitious......maybe i am just enjoying myself and the process. I think i will try something new and smaller scale, budget and time are running low and i dont have the studio space to do this kind of work inside at uni and i am being pressured to use my studio more. Time will tell.  
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