Today there was a guest lecturer in called Chris Dobrowolski. He is mainly a sculptor but in his lecture he mainly focused on videos, and photos, some of which contained his sculptural work. What struck me most about his work and presentation was how everything had a story behind it, It all seemed to have a deeper personal meaning. This is because most of the work we were shown was based around either his car, which has been in his family since he was born, or his fathers time fighting in Italy in WWII. The look at WWII gives an extra layer of meaning to his work because of it's historical context; it's not just got meaning to Chris.
This made me think about the lack of meaning in my own work. I usually don't mind that a lot of my work has little intended meaning as it allows people to give it their own meaning while not excluding anyone who may not grasp the original meaning. I do however think that it would make my work more interesting if their were stories behind them about why I did them and what they mean like with Dobrowolski's work.
Most of the lecture was based around his series of work called 'All Roads Lead to Rome'. This is a series of work and documentation of Chris restoring his Herald Estate then driving to Italy to visit where the car was made and visiting places where his Father fought in the war. Parts of the presentation can be seen here- http://cdobo.com/