DEGREES UNEDITED

REVIEW

Fine Art BA (Hons)

Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham
6 - 11 June 2009

Reviewed by: Peter Stonhold

Samuel Minton,
The Protagonist(s),
 Installation

 

My friend told me that he didn’t like to spend any time in Samuel Minton’s artificial living room. Apparently he found it very gloomy, but I didn’t. I found something very romantic about it. I found the character who owned the room romantic. I can think of two other types of romance present in the room, but not what I mean. One would be romance between a man and women, and the other would be the nostalgia of a past decade.

A collage of different edited scenes from 1950 romance films play on repeat on a television in the corner. You can watch it from a comfy well used arm chair, or from the air fix model desk in the opposite corner of the room. There are real goldfish in a gold fish bowl and there is an empty Lucozade bottle in a closed drawer, I can’t remember which one. There’s fake dust on top of the light switch which is a little too brown, reminding me of snuff, or maybe too much musk floating about? The air vent once oozed a brown substance but is now a stain, and the wallpaper has been tinted yellow.

I’m part of the generation who were told they were too young to watch Die Hard as a kid. Sets are very appealing to me. I find this idea of creating an environment which never existed, creating mise-en-scene interesting, more so for a person to experience than an actor to work with. I think there is something very funny about taking a film set outside of a film. I think this sort of art is exciting to my generation, as we have had a heavy influence of film and television in our lives.

What I find romantic about the character portrayed by his system of objects, is his stubbornness to move on. Recently I’ve found typical masculinity beautifully romantic. A stubbornness to change, pride and acceptance of personality or a frame of mind feels very attractive to me at the moment. I think because our social society is so quick to point the blame and to improve every aspect of personal and physical life.

Alternatively the character could be someone else but that’s not what I felt when I sat down and looked around the walls and the coffee table. How I feel when I’m in Samuel Minton’s room is defeat but I’m happy with that. I guess my friend just feels overwhelming despair?

 

 

Writer detail:
  3rd year fine art BA student  

Venue detail:
Nottingham Trent University
Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU
www.fineart09.com/ 

Post your comment

No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?

To post a comment you need to login

Back to top

Back to reviews »