Art Competition Sunday, September 16, 2011
Juror: Jeff Dell
Juror’s Statement:
Jurying is almost always difficult. There is merit and weakness in all of our works. There is ambiguity as to how we define good, better or best. The biases of jurors will always be present.
I decided that I would gauge the work significantly according to how all the works by one artist were working as a body. I chose to do this because the Expose competition seemed to highlight this as important: allowing up to five works, the awards being a exhibition of multiple works, a portfolio website, or photographic documentation of a body of work. Thus if all you have is one great piece, then you haven’t yet found that vision for how to build this work, how to grow it, and how to create a sense of momentum with it. I do think this momentum is really important to us as artists. We always need to find a way to make the work about the work.
I also put a large weight on conceptual development. This means that technique alone really won’t get you very far. On the other hand, it also means that if your work is conceptually heavy-handed, awkward, over-thought or very familiar, that’s also a weakness. In conceptual, I’m looking for something that has poetic breathing space, develops and grows through the body of work, is not too literal or too straight forward (I don’t want to “get it,” I do want learn/ask interesting questions) and feels very honest to the artist. If it feels like you’re trying too hard to be someone else, or to do what you think is what other people want to look at, then that’s a weakness. I fully recognize that I will sometimes fail to be correct in this judgement, but that is one of my guiding principles.
We do have a sort of responsibility to be aware of what has already been done and what is being done by others now. So if your work looks too much like someone else’s, then that’s a bit of a problem. It’s not hard to make it your own, but we all need to make the effort to do that.
I was glad to be able to award three honorable mentions, as it was difficult to choose the top three. Other jurors would probably choose a different ranking, and that’s the way it goes. Part of the message here it to enter many competitions and to not take it personally when you’re not chosen.
Thank you all for the opportunity to look at your work,
Jeffrey Dell
Mike the sad zombie clown. Photo shoot taken at the Mill in Luling, TX. It was a beautiful day with a lot of stares.
