Filming for the Presentation

Today I met with Julia to film my section of the presentation. I suggested filming in the spiral staircase as it aesthetically pleasing. I decided to talk about the private viewing along with a small evaluation. The filming took two takes in order to have enough recording to edit in case there were any mistakes. This is my speech for the presentation.

By the time of our private viewing the group were all ready to relax and enjoy the exhibition after our extremely busy set up that afternoon. It was an opportunity for BCU students to attend the private view have a glass of wine help themselves to our delicious bakes and appreciate and enjoy the exhibition. Plenty of people turned up to visit the show, and it became a very social and successful event. It was lovely to see so many people turn up to the event and also the tutors as it gave us the opportunity to individually speak to them about our exhibition and the concepts and context behind it.


 The exhibition as a whole progressed really well from our original idea of ethereal this is due to the hard-work and dedication from the group working together as a team. The development of the project flourished through our regular group meetings and contact via our Facebook group. As our group is so large it was often hard for every member to attend each scheduled meeting due to prior commitments, however through our Facebook group it allowed everyone to be fully updated on how the meetings progressed and to share opinions to ensure everyone was happy with the progression of our exhibition. I think the regular meetings were vital in the success of our exhibition as it assured that we were fully organized and committed to create the best possible exhibition with the facilities we had.

Group Meeting - Post Exhibition

20th February 

Today we had a group meeting in which only half of the group could attend this was to discuss the exhibition and to focus on the following major points: 

• Apology letter for two artists.
• Thank you letter to the artists involved. 
• The presentation.

Apology Letters

The first port of call was to write an apology letter on behalf of the group to the two artists whom which we had damaged their work. We decided a full formal letter needed to be written to Ilona, on behalf of the group, whilst an apology within a thank you card would suffice for Kerris as the issue had already been resolved. Together we all contributed the following letter which we then proceeded to email to the artist via Facebook, left a copy in her studio space and also forwarded the letter as a text in the hope to get hold of her as soon as possible. The letter read as follows:

Dear Ilona,

We are terribly sorry for the damage caused to your work. The group would like to take full responsibility for the accidental damage, and we would like to meet with you, at your convenience, to discuss what happened face-to-face. Mona has agreed to mediate any discussion, as the tutor who heads up this particular level 4 module.

Our Sincerest apologies,

John Wigley's tutor group

Alice Macqueen// Amber Sims// Amy Hoult// Anna Phillips// Bianca Bonvie-Marsland// Domonic Gardiner// Elizabeth Ilsley// Emma Ginster// Faith Pallet// Hannah Minchin// Julia Bloomfield// Megan Evans// Megan Wellings// Nadine Lowe// Raymond Linklater.


I feel this letter is precise and to the point it offers the artist the opportunity to visit us as a group to discuss how we may be of any help we possibly can. I think this is the most professional approach to apologise to Ilona on behalf of the group.  

Thank you Cards

For the members of the group that attended the meeting we then handed out thank you cards for each person to write individually directed to a certain artist. I wrote to Becky Price to thank her for letting us use the work within the exhibition and for the support that the artists have provided. We then decided to print out an image of the exhibition for the front of the card to give them an insight into how their work appeared within the show. We then left these in the artists studio space. I think this is a nice engaging way to thank the artists for their involment within the exhibition and it also gives them a token of our appreciation. 

The Presentation 

As we are such a large group we have decided that it would be effective to use a video for our presentation rather than all standing and reading from a powerpoint. The presentation will be in a video format in which we will all be individually filmed this will a spoken honest and reflective response to the exhibition as a whole. Again Julias partner has kindly offered to let us use his video equipment to film over the period of a few days within university. As the presentation has to be 15 minutes, we will each have an individual time slot of 1 minute each this will consist of two short paragraphs. One will be focusing on the process of a certain element of the exhibition whilst the other will be a short personal evaluation. In order to cover each element of the process of the exhibtion we decided to look at past presentaions from the students who took the module the previous year. This gave us a small insight into what we all need to talk about in order to make our presentation suseccsful. Here are the following elements we decided needed to be covered: 

• Themes
• Theme Influences
• Choosing the Title
• Featured Artists
• Press Release
• Advertising
• Exhibition Plan
• Installation Day
• The Private Show
• What we have learned
• Feedback
• Communicating as a Group
• Group Homepage
• Any Questions  

This list can obviously be added to and edited in order for every member of the group to be comfortable about what they will be speaking about in front of the camera. I have asked to talk about  the Private Viewing as I feel this is something I really enjoyed within the process of the exhibition as a whole. We will edit the video over the course of reading week. The initial plan is to combine the filming with images of the process of the exhibition and also footage of the time lapse, therefore we will each be on the screen for a few seconds which will then fade into the footage and images with the audio element overlaying the visual presentation.
 

Visual Time Lapse

The following is a link to our visual time lapse. This was recorded and videoed kindly by Julia's partner for the duration of the installation. This provided visual evidence of the set up and is great to reflect upon and learn from our mistakes. 

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3TFFNlXwxk&feature=youtu.be

De-install Day

14th February 2014

Today Julia, Ray, Emma, Bianca, Megan, Anna, Amy, Meg and I arrived at 12pm to de-install the exhibition. We were expecting this process to last the majority of the afternoon however as a team we worked really efficiently in de-installing the exhibition and re instating the space ready for the next group. The first port of call was to remove the artwork from the space as carefully as possible and to return each artwork to the studio space. As with the process of collecting the work we returned it using the same policy, i.e the same number of people to carry the work. Once the space was cleared of artwork, we then began to remove the plinths using the trolley to again return them to where they came from. There were a few that needed retouching and so we left them in the space whilst we began to de-assemble the material structure. We first had to remove the stretches of organza and fold them as as a group we were going to keep them in a locker on site so they were at our individual disposal. Ray then using the ladder removed the hooks from the studio walls whilst I reeled the fishing wire so that Julia could use it again for her next project. Then we filled in the holes from the hooks using a small amount of white tack and the space was completely reinstated within an hour and a half. The majority of the group then left whilst Bianca, Julia, Anna and I repainted the remaining plinths. The de install was very successful as we completed it within a couple of hours. It was a shame to take down the exhibition after such hard work installing it. It would have been nice if we had been able to have our exhibition up for a week and opened it to the general public, however as there were a number of groups this was not feasible. 



Photos taken by Bianca capture the process of taking the exhibition down.

 

Feedback and Tutor Suggestions

During the opening night it was key to receive feedback and suggestions in order for us to reflect on how are exhibition was viewed and interpreted by the public, and also to develop our curation skills for the future by learning from other peoples opinions and thoughts.

Birmingham City University Students Feedback

Callum - Riba's Magpies painting were really interesting. It was different - good different. Better than he thought it would be. There should have been beer as well as wine. 

Tutors Feedback 

 

 

Mona - It was beautiful and amazing, she was originally worried about how it would look in case it looked tacky but it was beyond her expectations.

Janet - Really didn't like the fabric on the floor, and even took it away from the exhibition at one point. This was also highlighted by John who felt that the fabric and the careful display of everything made the exhibition look slightly like a shop display.
 
John - Reminds him slightly of a circus marquee, it would look better if the fabric was closer together so that there would be a very distinct change between the outside world and the inner world. He questioned how much time we had spent on the actual arrangement of the plinths. He wondered if we had more time, we should start to subtract from the exhibition - take pieces away and see what it looks like without some of the pieces in there. He didn't think it was very ethereal because of the weightiness and the solidity of the plinths, however he did agree that there was a distinct link with the title of going 'through the ether' into this other world where the exhibition was. He commented that it was slightly like an installation. However, he also said that he thought we did the best of what we could within the time frame and worked really well considering it's hard to work in such a large group. The exhibition works, and is really different to what students usually produce.





The majority of our feedback was positive and so that gave me a strong sense of satisfaction from our exhibition. I will take the suggestions on board for future projects and to some extent I do agree that the fabric on the floor could have distracted from the actual artwork on display. 

Manning the Exhibition

13th February 

Today Ray and I manned the exhibition for a two hour slot between 12-2. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on our exhibition within a quiet environment, a chance to listen to the footsteps and explore our theme of ethereal and how it has developed our show as a whole. Approximately 30 people visited the exhibition within our slot this allowed us to explain our thoughts and ideas behind the exhibition and hear feedback from the viewers which has been a very helpful process. We also handed out press releases and information sheets about the artists involved in the exhibition which proved very useful to the visitors.

Individual Work Displayed

As a group we had decided that on install day we would establish where the individual pieces of artwork should be displayed, as it was difficult to plan the island of plinths beforehand. Within the exhibition it was key that each piece of work was shown to its best potential and therefore it needs to be displayed on full view to ensure that people visiting the exhibition can fully view each piece of artwork.

Individual Art Work

Riba Begum 

 
These are the three final pieces we decided to use from this artists collection. As a collective we felt these best linked to our theme of ethereal because of the fluid background and highlights of white, and also linked to other pieces of work used within the exhibition. These pieces were lent against the plinths and floor based which involved the viewers leaning down to view the details. These pieces were, in relation to the other work we used very realistic and figurative, however personally I think that worked to an advantage as our exhibition then explored a variety of art. They also link well to the silver point portraits because of the pictorial language and the delicate text linked to the glass slippers. As the island of plinths were completely white, these pieces possessed a much needed contrast which is given through the dark and somber colours used within these artworks.

 

Sam Ellis

 

We used all of Sam Ellis' glue gun flowers within our exhibition which totaled 15 individual pieces. As the flowers were covered with powdered paint we had to ensure they did not touch any other pieces of artwork as they could leave permanent marks. We scattered the flowers around the exhibition but all in the same general area. These flowers were distributed considering the various sizes on the angled plinth and secured using a small amount of white tack. They were also placed around other pieces of artwork that they had strong links to such as Becky Hadfields small acetate cones because of the colours and the size of both of the pieces of artwork. These beautiful flowers lead the viewer around the exhibition, and acts as a visual aid in attracting the eye.

Becky Hadfield

The above two images depict the curation of Becky Hadfields work. During the process of the installation Becky visited the space to see how the exhibition was developing. Becky played a part in curating her pieces of work by giving us tips as to how she normally displays the piece for assessment , for example layering the cones inside one another depending on colours. She also informed us that the rectangle pieces were actually made to match the size of the floorboards and so asked if we were happy to place a few on the floor surrounding the plinths. We were happy to do this as long as they posed no health and safety risk. We did place the pieces in relation to Sam Ellis' work (shown above) as there is a strong link between them through colours and size. 

Ilona Kazakevica  

 


Unfortunately in a complete accident one of Ilonas silver point portraits was damaged as the plinths tumbled  and fell onto the piece. As Faith had Ilonas contact number she offered to ring the artist to tell her of the incident on behalf of the group, however Ilona was still happy to let us use the three remaining drawings within the exhibition. We will set up a meeting in the near future with the artist in order to apologize and offer and supplementary funds that may be needed to repair the piece.  Subsequently after this incident we were all very wary in handling Ilona work as we were now aware of how fragile and delicate the pieces are. Considering this we decided to use the easel for the one portrait that we had settled with for the exhibition. The other pieces of work were carefully taken back to the artists space in her studio. The portrait worked perfectly in relation to our theme and the other pieces of artwork because of the delicate nature of the drawings and also the figurative link to the Magpie paintings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Marder

 During the installation Jack played an active part in curating his own pieces. The artist was keen to get involved and make suggestions as to how we could display his work to its best potential.  The first step however was for Julia, Liz and I to select the work we wanted to use within the exhibition and all of the work was on display in the studio. There were mainly two sets of colours used in the pieces a blue maroon or the deep purple that we decided to use, due to the fact that we used them as a background image for advertisement purposes and also because they link to the purple organza we have used in the material structure. We were keen to use one piece as floor based, however as the island of plinths resulted in lack of open floor space, I suggested laying the piece on top of the plinths which has the same effect and allows the viewer to look down on the artwork to view it in detail. Jack placed the other two pieces positioned on the plinth and floor, piled on a mound of salt which was actually ours from the last project which reflects the journey it has been on. He also added the stones as the source of inspiration to the installation some over the light box which created a beautiful light source and added to the ethereal quality. The stunning paintings for me optimize the theme of ethereal because of the fluidity and sublime quality they advocate. I think they beautifully link as a painted surface to Lucy Ormes white waxwork sculpture due to the natural formed shapes created within the paintings.  

Sukhjinder Nahal

 After the unfortunate plinth incident we were all very cautious with the pieces of artwork in particular the delicate ones such as this threaded cube by artist Sukhjinder Nahal. We as a group had collated our individual ideas of how we should display this piece and I think our favoured idea was to hang the cube from the ceiling. However on the day this seemed unattainable as we did not feel confident that the fishing wire would be strong enough to hold the cube safely and securely. Another downside to this idea would be that the bottom of the cube is in fact not threaded and so there would be a large section of negative space visible to the viewer which personally I think would look aesthetically displeasing. As this was the largest piece within the exhibition we decided to leave an empty section for the cube and placed this in the space and then the plinths around it, which enabled us to experiment with the positioning of the cube and find the location in which it would look most effective. Initially we laid the piece flat to the ground after the incident but then decided it was secure enough to have the piece angled on the lightbox plinth. From the very beginning I have always wanted to use a light under the cube in order to create shadows and play with the use of light in the exhibition. I think the use of the light box which disguises the light works beautifully it creates an celestial effect. 

Lucy Orme

We had already decided to keep Lucy Ormes waxwork sculpture nick named the 'Iceberg' on a plinth as it is too delicate to risk moving the sculpture and placing it in a more unorthodox position. The plinth was positioned in the centre of the island of plinths yet became a central focus point due to the beam of light from the spot lights which seems to reflect the intricate details found on the piece. This can be seen from the blurred picture above. This sculpture is the epitome of ethereal for me, the divine, otherworldy and beautiful design through the crystallized growths are stunning and it is the perfect piece for the exhibition . It also links wonderfully to the silverpoint portraits because of the delicacy both of the pieces personify and the ethereal quality that they seem to attribute to the exhibition.

Becky Price

We chose to use three of Becky Prices shoes all displayed using very different techniques. The wax shoes to the right were displayed on a light box which lights up the shoes from underneath which creates a exquisite effect. I think the most aesthetically pleasing piece was the shoes that were hung on the stool. This unorthodox way of displaying is very visually exciting and draws the viewer in to take a closer look. We were keen to make sure the shoes were stable and safe hanging upon the stool in order to ensure there was no damage to the piece. The last pair of shoes that were displayed were the original ones that we found for the exhibition. We left these in the shoe box as part of the installation placed on a tall plinth. These particular artworks worked really well within the exhibition as they linked to our ethereal theme because of the delicate quality, and the fantasy connotations. These pieces also link well to other artwork used within the exhibition such as Lucy Ormes waxwork sculpture because of the colour and also the material that both of the pieces have been made with.

Kerris Stirling

As there were a number of Kerris' piece we originally distributed the various pieces all over the plinths in order to link the exhibition together. However the artist Kerris Stirling came to visit during the installation and as she had an assessment the following day she asked that we keep all her work congregated in one area. Therefore we rearranged the pieces, the majority of these were placed in a cluster on top of the stall plinth, whilst the other pieces were dispersed on the lower plinth within the same area. I think the scattered display of these pieces echo the disjointed nature of these delicate growths. We also placed these small pieces in relation to other work that they could link to i.e Sam Ellis' flowers because of the small size, natural forms and vivid colours. The small pieces of work are used throughout the exhibition from every angle ans they act as a link between the different art works and also as a tool to lead the viewers eye around this 'island' of plinths.

 

Polly Willets

 


We had a lot of Polly Willets work to choose from as they were all arranged in her studio space. As we had a limited area of space we picked a total of 12 pieces varying in size and style. Originally we were unsure of how to display the work, one idea was to distribute the pieces over the plinths but as some of the pieces were so small we were worried they would easily get lost. Therefore we decided on displaying them on a tall plinth in the same style of Polly Willets. The composition of this display leads the viewers eye around the work this is because the juxtaposition of the larger pieces against the smaller ones. The dark quality of these pieces provide mysterious, enigmatic connotations which link to a darker side of ethereal much like Riba Begums figurative magpie paintings.

The Final Exhibition - Photos

Here are images of the final exhibition from each angle. I have captured the exhibition from every angle in order to portray each piece of artwork and how it has been presented.

Opening Night - Private Viewing

 12th February 2014

Our opening night began at 6pm on the 12th February on a Wednesday night. By 6pm the group were all ready to relax and enjoy the exhibition after our extremely busy set up that afternoon. It was an opportunity for Birmingham City University students to attend the private view have a glass of wine help themselves to our delicious bakes and appreciate and enjoy the exhibition. Hannah and I's advertising undoubtedly did the job as plenty of people turned up to visit the show, and it became a very social and successful event. It was lovely to see so many people turn up to the event and also the tutors as it gave us the opportunity to individually speak to them about our exhibition and the concepts and context behind it. 

Our Opening Night underway.

Collecting Work

Originally we had a detailed plan of who was to collect which pieces of work, however once the exhibition was underway we found it easier for members of the group to begin collecting whilst others were occupied. Hannah and I collected the glue fun flowers from the level 5 studios by artist Sam Ellis. We used a tray to carry the work because of its delicate nature. We also carried, by hand the four silver point portraits by artist Ilona Kaseavic. Finally Liz, Hannah and I collected the string cube by Suhkjinder Nahal, two of us carried the piece using the frame work as the piece was too large to fit in a trolley. Once all the pieces were in the space we placed them under their allocated positions where they were safe. We kept the flowers on the tray and places the portraits on foam pads to cushion them and prevent any damage. I also took photos of the pieces before we removed them from the space for the purpose of returning them in the correct position on the de-installment day.  

Photos of the Install

Here are some further images of the process of the install, taken by Alice to work alongside the notes.