Unit X Reflection

 

During my completion of Unit X I have learnt a few things that have made me flourish as an artist. I have learnt how to work collaboratively to put on an exhibition. I have also discovered a taste for using performance art as a medium to portray my ideas. I feel that I can now take these skills on into my practices in the future to become a successful artist.

Unit X has had many aspects to take on, and I feel that I have varied in engagement with each of these tasks, yet succeeded in them all. I threw myself into my primary research by promptly choosing the theme of 'Appropriation' and finding out the definition of this word, and artists to which it may refer. I also visited a lot of galleries such as the Manchester Art Gallery and the newly opened Whitworth Gallery, to small 2nd year openings. I engaged in a performance workshop with the artist Angela Bartram, which encouraged me a lot to go for the medium of performance for this project. I also fully engaged myself in working with a group of people who all chose 'Appropriation' as their subject to work towards for Unit X. I created a Facebook group for us all to communicate with ease upon and regularly posted about the meetings we held and what we discussed during. I do however think that if I'd of had more time with my group we could have come up with more creative pieces together.

I have taken a few choices during Unit X that have informed my idea development. In the beginning I conducted deep research into past biblical imagery and existing performance art that I felt I could take ideas from and link to the theme of 'Appropriation'. From this I learnt about the 'Fallen Woman' and chose to experiment with my response to this by using performance and my original practice of film and photography.

As I have mentioned, I have learnt some skills for performance art during Unit X, but if I could improve my final piece, I'd have practiced it a lot more before performing it to an audience. From watching back the recording I had my friend make I saw a lot of flaws that I could sort out and repair in the future.

There have been some key motives during Unit X that have drove me to engage fully and press on successfully. The performance workshop I did gave me confidence to actually go through with performing my piece to an audience. Working with others with the aim of putting on an interesting show was also a motivating exercise as we all had one goal. From this I now would love to take the opportunity of working collaboratively in the future with other artists.

Unit X has had it's ups and downs, but I feel that I have gained skills as an artist that I will take on into the future and have fun with.