My work received responses of:
Idealism, the culture of having to look perfect, beautiful etc, femininity, very high standards
Intentions are clear - more emphasis on the hand aspect though
The hanger is liked, adds context and activates the work, mannequin? Dehumanising. Eg use mannequin hands?
Relation to the issues too lame, giant version as looks a little lost, lots of to emphasise consumerism
Save all of it, needs more - scale or more focus on the hands, manipulation - weird dehumanising way
Maybe an installation - whole magazine - remove all the irrelevant parts and just hands
Seems like it highlights what you want people to look at.
I am really inspired by the feedback, as an experimental piece I knew it had more potential, I was just unsure of where it was going. The feedback has opened my eyes into the way other people view magazines, some people see it as comedic and humorous, whereas others see it literally. I also think this feedback is rather controversial, I believe magazines tend to be extremely dehumanising already, they present an unlikely attainable ideal of a female and present culture of the ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’. In this context does making a large installation conform to the ideas of consumerism more? I believe that the group could see some parts of what I wanted to highlight within the piece. I’m glad that they understood the idea of the hands and the posing, but I think they took it as more of a ‘product’ rather than a way of highlighting this way in which females pose and use their hands. Maybe the other parts of the work took over the piece and lost the focus from what I was trying to highlight. Using mannequin hands and merging with the human form isn’t the way I want my work to go, maybe the group see it going into something more abstract or even something immersive. I was surprised at the comment on how it highlights what you want people to look at, much like the steps magazines take to show certain adverts and use free samples etc. I think that was an important comment for my work because I have realised how in control I am of what I show in these magazine displays. I don’t necessarily disagree with the comments of the group, although I’m not sure making it or my work bigger will change its impact because I like the context of keeping the magazines the same size, to keep it relatable to what it is. I think that I could maybe adapt this and look at the way I incorporate it in an installation though, just not blowing up the scale of the image in this case. If I hadn’t used this crit as an experiment, I would have invested time into making more or even a bigger impacting installation that addressed the issue of posing more than this piece seems to. I would have tried to incorporate this into an online version that people could flick through, resembling online algorithms that chose adverts based on your interest, it could then highlight what I want the viewer to see instead. In making this crit piece I took most of my inspiration from Erving Goffman and his understanding of ‘the feminine touch’. This is to highlight how the pose and mannerism of the female are what sells the product. There is something false but alluring about this positioning which subconsciously makes the viewer consume the lifestyle that’s being presented to them and is something that inspires me in my work.
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