Semester 2 Assessment Post

"The role of the artist as environmental activist is to employ the rich set of tools like irony, allegory and humour, which are less readily or imaginatively employed by the institutions which seek to promote particular 'truths' such as science or the entertainment industry." -Mark Dion

Since semester one I feel I have a more grounded idea of what is important to me and a better focus on my ideas and the intentions behind my work. I have been interested in developing a strong political context in my work but in reference to the quote by Mark Dion above, in ways that employ tools that art can add to a cause that other areas may not have as readily available to use such as humour. I aim to reach a non-specific wide audience and the use of humour, fun and scale such as my shark piece that when suspended fills and dominates a space I have found during this semester are qualities that are more engaging and appealing to others and myself to work with. When combining Art with activism, interesting an audience and causing discussion is important to give the work any further purpose to benefiting a cause unrelated to art so this is something I have to keep in mind when measuring any successes in my work and I still need to improve on.

My work is still based around animals and representing animal forms in different ways. This semester I have mainly worked in sculpture, making quite geometric animal skeletal shapes from plastic straws as my most successful material and testing some other materials such as waste plastics and cardboard on smaller scales. I have worked with a select group of animal species such as bears, sharks, deer and birds. My reasons for these animals include working with stereotypical perceptions, trying a range of scales and my personal views linked to animal advocacy looking at topics like plastic pollution and trophy hunting.

This semester I have tried to develop my knowledge on contemporary artists working with the same themes as me. I have focused my research in to mainly sculpture based artists, being influenced by artists like Sally Matthews for her enthusiasm for animals and materials, Angela Singer and Gilles Cenazandotti for their way of getting across their animal rights political views in their sculpture and Maurizio Cattelan for his boldness, playful attitude and combination of serious and comical themes.