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In this feedback session we began looking at Marina Jacob’s work consisting mainly of drawings and sculptures which prompted us to discuss, amongst the myriad of obstacles there are to making art in the current socio-economic and political climate in the UK, the question of pleasure. 

It was a privilege to spend a Saturday afternoon in the company of the artists who so generously shared their work at the lunchtime feedback. It’s a pleasure to spend time with artists and their work, together in dialogue with each other. You normally either get one or the other. Over a packed afternoon, we experienced a truly diverse range of practices and research.

Feedback (2018)

Do I understand what you are trying to do?
What have I presumed you are trying to do?
Did I listen deeply enough? What have you voiced?
What did you conceal? Intentionally or not?

We spent an afternoon talking about five artists’ works. The group was generous in their discussion and open to critical input, it was a relaxed but serious collection of conversations.

At the crit last satdee, there were little moments of conversation about editing, feeling, airport security, and art that goes all out maximalist ; but we want to circle back round to whether or not a piece of art you make is finished.

An unofficial theme of today could be contemplating the notion of process in any practice: how does our work and the narratives we have around it function in the every day? How can we talk about and express “process” in our practices and our lives at large? In what ways are we pushed in or pressured to expedite or neatly package feelings and experiences that aren’t meant to or won’t be tidy?

I see illustration everywhere, I’m a bit obsessed…

I think it began when I started getting interested in music and used to pour over the lyrics in an album cover, then turned my attention to the album artwork. The artwork was an advert for the music, it represented what the creator of that music wanted me – the audience – to understand about the sound. It translated a concept from one artform into another. For me this is magical, and what I love about illustration.

She suggested singing before a presentation, warm up your voice and get used to the sound of it.

Crits can sometimes be anxiety inducing; the formality of them, the dynamics between people, the distribution of ‘voice-time’, intimidation, tangents, miscommunication.

Our crit was really well attended with many of the group wanting to share work.
For this reason, we tried to fit in discussing as many people’s work as possible, which led to a fast paced and lively discussion. In retrospect it might have been better to focus on just 2 or 3 artists, but there was some great energy in the room and it felt important to nurture this, so we opted for a short presentations by 5 artists.