When I was in grad school, I had a critique of my work by a well established artist. When he came into the room with the rest of the critique board, he sat down and didn’t say anything until the very end of the critique. When it was his turn, he paused and then said “when I first saw your work, I was very taken by how polished and well presented it is. Your imagery has depth and the execution is very professional. But the more I look at it, the more I realize how boring it is. You cover up the content by making it ‘slick’. But guess everyone needs a hook. My advice to you is let the work stand on it’s own.” Needless to say I was crushed but by the next day I realized he was right.
As I looked at this video of Bill Hansen’s work, the words of my critique came into my mind and I can’t decide if his work is pure brilliance or just has a good hook. He has the good intention of good and relevant content but I can’t get past the sideshow entertainment of the work. I keep saying “wow, that’s brilliant, that’s different, that’s …” and I lose the content in the execution. For me the best piece was the self portrait on the roulette wheel. It felt the most authentic, and the least ‘slick’. But when all is said and done, he gets an A+ for just putting it out there for the world to see.
PRAS is a volunteer-based, non-profit society serving the districts of Tofino and Ucluelet, and First Nations communities in the Clayoquot Sound/ Long Beach area, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Our goal is to help build happy, healthy communities by bringing people together through arts and culture. Contact us at pacificrimarts@gmail.com.
When I was in grad school, I had a critique of my work by a well established artist. When he came into the room with the rest of the critique board, he sat down and didn’t say anything until the very end of the critique. When it was his turn, he paused and then said “when I first saw your work, I was very taken by how polished and well presented it is. Your imagery has depth and the execution is very professional. But the more I look at it, the more I realize how boring it is. You cover up the content by making it ‘slick’. But guess everyone needs a hook. My advice to you is let the work stand on it’s own.” Needless to say I was crushed but by the next day I realized he was right.
As I looked at this video of Bill Hansen’s work, the words of my critique came into my mind and I can’t decide if his work is pure brilliance or just has a good hook. He has the good intention of good and relevant content but I can’t get past the sideshow entertainment of the work. I keep saying “wow, that’s brilliant, that’s different, that’s …” and I lose the content in the execution. For me the best piece was the self portrait on the roulette wheel. It felt the most authentic, and the least ‘slick’. But when all is said and done, he gets an A+ for just putting it out there for the world to see.