Monuments Should Not Be Trusted

Friday, 11 March 2016

Monuments Should Not Be Trusted... Research & work based practice

Today we went to look at the exhibition at Monuments Should not be Trusted, at the Nottingham Contemporary. The exhibition is based around communism and the divide in Yugoslavia around 1950's - 1980's. The exhibition had a wide range of pieces including sculptures, film, collage, photography, painting, music videos, and gifts made by workers for the president. The different ways in which some of the works were presented was really cool and interesting, there was one piece which was presented on match boxes. This is a great idea in which interacts with the viewer which in turn will make them look into your image more. Provoking questions and narratives behind your piece, its a idea to think about using in my own works.

Around this time the East was very different from the West. With the work the viewer tries to depict the ideas behind the piece and what the artists are trying to communicate. You wasn't as people of the country aloud to aspire for better or want me that didn't exist. The flags show the differences between the two sides one being cushy, soft but can go up in flames at any minute while the other side was brutal, harsh and quite suppressing! The mixture of collages and mixed media heavily influenced by Dadaism.

Before the 1920's photography was easier to understand with it being more straight forward as you come into the 1900's modernism was born which is when photography became more complex to understand. It isn't 2 dimensional anymore there are loads of ideas and questions about the concept behind the image. Are questions good? Do you get a narrative from the image? 

Questions are good getting the viewer to question your work is a piece well made. If they stand there questioning the image trying to decipher the concept the more time they are looking into your work. They may not get your own personal narrative you try to communicate but as long as you evoke some emotion and thought process to connect with then you have made a powerful piece of work.