OCA: Climacteric – 21.2.21
Moderator: Rob Townsend Intro: Derek Trillo.
This was a sharing and discussion with Jane Weinmann’s about her final year body of work for level 3 Climacteric, which has good examples of creating efficiencies in your work. The Climacteric A personal journey through the menopause.
Derek suggested that her journey was a good example of how to narrow down topics in self directed briefs:
She had no idea on what topic she would use when she started level 3. Advised to choose something that she could live with for 2/3 years. So she went out and just shot and explored. She found various strands she might follow, graffiti, paths, self portraits, mark making on images, notions of embarrassment and presented them to her tutor who told her she’d need to narrow it down.
Her images were personal and conceptual such as broken, dark, sombre objects. She realised her work was about her feelings and was going through the menopause and that she should go with this. Climacteric is the name for the menopause from the peri to the post menopause.
Her process:
- Researched and read.
- Created a survey posted in the OCA forum and to friends and colleagues asking about people’s feelings about the menopause. She wanted the work to resonate with people and asked them what visually came to mind for them.
- Note the importance of referring to groups/peers. Jane presented to groups asking particularly about the use of colour, she was focusing on using the colour red.
She was then able to narrow down the strands
- Looked at artists who had used colour in black and white work.
- Used her contextual studies to study her ideas of using colour on black and white images.
- Explored lots of ideas all the way through.
- Explored beyond photography; at one point emojs were an inspiration to her, and have appeared in her final images.
- Experimented until she found something that worked.
- Collaborated with others and tried to interact with the local press.
- Found her own way of doing something. Her work contains a virtual exhibition, a book, video.
There was context to her work beyond the topic and ways it could be shared/of value to others. She wanted to bring awareness education and outreach and hence created a virtual exhibition and website (used billboards in the public space to bring people in). If it had been a physical exhibition, she would have used projection as well.
My Take aways:
- It was useful to hear the process that Jane went through form not having a clear topic to her body of work to the final exhibition; especially as at the memonet have no ideas myself for level 3.
- It was good to hear that through experimentation and research you can narrow down ideas and come to a worable and interesting focus.
- I liked her Tutors suggestion that you should write an artist statement, what you want to do with it and why at the beginning/part way through and refer to it throughout to keep you focused. Maybe I should do this on my assignment 5 to help me keep my work/research relevant. Ask yourself: Is what I’m doing adding or distracting from my work?
- It was good to hear her advice to find a group with good intent and ask for feedback throughout. I have 2 good OCA groups for this and should make sure I keep contributing to them, Documentary/level 3 hangout group and Thames Valley OCA group.
- Derek Trillo shared that Simon Norfolk suggests that for a successful body of work you need to draw viewers in, keep them there for a while (possibly with humour), hold their attention and then they might linger and take something away with themselves. I need to remember not to make my work too dry.
References:
Gallery – The Climacteric – a photographic journey through the menopause (2021) At: https://www.climacteric.ch/climacteric-i (Accessed 21/02/2021).
Photography 2: Documentary 