Art Attendance Round One: Senior Thesees

So I used to work in the Foreman gallery down in Anderson, so I was privy to all the exhibits that came to town. I have to say, though, that the most interesting exhibits were the senior projects. The first round was in the Gallery for a long time so I spent a long time staring at it. What stood out to me more than anything else were the individual messages provided by the artists. Despite the serious vision and time that obviously went into the amazing pieces around the gallery, it didn't seem like much effort was put into the exposition and explanation accompanying their works. I was most impressed by Chris Hausser, however, who created something he titled Stactel: a giant wooden creation of amorphous lumps hewn with a chainsaw and secured with Elmer's glue. His message was short and to the point. He laid out what his work meant to him and how he made it, and that was that. Some of the other artists, though, forged long, tedious, and rushed memos about their work.

Whenever I read these types of works, I construct the scene in my head of this person reading their explanation to me through their tone of voice. Basically, a poorly written exposition is one where the camera recording their scene is focused on the top of the person's head and has focusing problems (the camera keeps trying to focus the right amount on the scene- I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about). The point is that it just seems poorly done. But when someone does it well, I see the person is in full view and even in an interesting shot. Of all the things to notice, I know that this is something weird to notice and comment on, but I feel that if a statement accompanies a product of a semester of work (or more) that it should flow as smoothly as the art piece itself.