Translate Art Criticism Language Into Something Useful for Your Own Practice

The writing about visual art can be impenetrable in a way that makes you wonder if you are missing something or if there is nothing to miss. Some of the vocabulary names real phenomena that are worth thinking about. Some of it is internal critical discourse that does not travel beyond the review. This translates specific terms into plain language and tells you which ones contain a question worth asking yourself about your own work.

Translate the following art criticism language into plain English so I can work out whether it is saying something useful about my practice or just deploying vocabulary. For each term or phrase I provide, give me: what it actually means in plain language, whether it is describing something real that a maker should care about or is mainly critical jargon, and one practical question I could ask myself about my own work based on what the term genuinely refers to. The terms or phrases I want translated are [list two to five terms or phrases from art criticism you have encountered]. Answer in plain, non-academic language.