Thesis Presentation to Faculty: Reflection

Last Friday, I presented my thesis direction to the art and design faculty. Overall, I thought things went reasonably well, and I was informed later that day that I had passed, receiving the Grief award for materials in the amount of $600. 

I received very positive reactions to the use of three-dimensional elements in my work, and found the feedback on that front encouraging.

In a few other areas, I received some critiques that may require rethinking and reworking how I will present my idea. One of the objections to my current mockup was in regard to my use of classical figures alongside my abstractions. My reasoning for including a more realized figure at all is that I want the viewer to be able to recognize a figure in the work as having agency; I want that figure to be the one doing the reflecting, not the viewer herself. This is important to me because I think that if the viewer were supposed to extrapolate that they were looking into themselves, I think there would be too much ambiguity for me to make a clear statement. Another point that was made was that my use of specifically male and female gendered bodies could be problematic. I can see why they say that, but I am concerned people will interpret my work as being "about women" and possibly miss the point. The question then, is what can I do with my representation of bodies to make the read clear and to best represent my intentions?