Fiona Philipps
Gallery Practice Process and Exhibition
The venue, the Contemporary Urban Centre, Novas was I think the perfect venue for our exhibition as there was enough room to accommodate our work but as there are only twelve of us it was not too big, making our work look lost.
The venue group managed to arrange and book the Novas quite quickly and once our bank account was open we were ready to start fundraising.
We managed to find several sponsors and had two tombola events a few weeks apart. The first one was more successful than the second. We also collected money each week which I don’t think seemed as bad as paying a large amount in one go.
The design group did a good job of creating and printing our poster and invitations to the private view. The weeks leading up to the exhibition went very quickly and all the arrangements had gone smoothly.
We were now ready for the start of our exhibition. Drinks were arranged for the Private View and now all we had to do was to install our work.
The transportation of our work went well driven over in the college van by Steve. Although in the weeks leading up to the exhibition I had felt a bit stressed, but I now was quite relaxed and enjoying the day.
We placed our work in the gallery and tried to decide how best to display it.
The following day Paul, Michelle and Vinnie came over to help us curate our exhibition. We all spent time discussing the work and moving it around and by the end there was a clear connection and flow to the exhibition.
When we had tried to curate our work ourselves the previous day we had placed all the landscapes along one wall, but there wasn’t enough variation in size. We had to aim for balance and this was achieved by placing the work according to theme, colour and size.
My work was placed in the middle of the wall to the left if entering the gallery through the main entrance.
We decided to hang Sharon’s portraits then my bones and wire sculpture and then Danielle’s charcoal and oil and finally my mixed media piece. I think that this worked well because my work was able to link to the pieces either side and Sharon’s and Danielle’s work complimented mine in both colour and tone.
The exhibition had a figurative side that moved into fragmented body images. It then flowed into Moya’s relief work and then the other side of the gallery was made up of landscapes and urban scenes created by Andrew, Mark , Lia, Tommy and Des. At the end of this side were Emma’s portraits which then connected up again to Vicky’s big figurative painting.
Andrew and Paula’s sculptures filled the space in the centre of the gallery well.
I think that separating my work was the right decision as my ‘Stressed’ piece and ‘Silent’ piece just did not look right together at all. The subjects worked together but the colours were all wrong. I probably should have only put one in. If it had been possible I would have preferred my work to be together.
I was surprised how different the colours looked in the gallery. In the studio the orange wash in my ‘Stressed’ piece did not look particularly bright but under the spot lights in the gallery it looked really vibrant, so that is something else to remember.
My wire sculpture looked a bit better in the gallery than it did in the studio. I think that the shadows cast by the gallery lights were more interesting than the piece itself. I would like to develop the shadows into a piece of work.
I found the seminar on Friday morning with Steve and Vinnie constructive and helpful but I think that we all held back a little so as not to offend each other. I was honest in the comments I made but it is difficult to criticise other people’s work for fear of upsetting anyone. I think that we would learn more if we were able to give and accept more criticism and not take it personally. I would not have been offended had people been more honest with me.
I have learnt a lot from this experience and think that it has helped prepare us all for our final year and degree show.
