For various reasons I haven’t been in the studio making work this past week, and I miss it.
On Tuesday I drove 23 paintings to south London for a solo exhibition. There was no-one at the gallery to hang the work, and their hanging system is bizarre: lines hanging down from a high rail, to which hooks are attached. Endless fiddling is required to get the lines in the right place, and the pictures level. I hurt my knee recently, and it means that going up and down ladders is not easy at the moment, so I was really glad to be accompanied by Daisy, the current intern from firstsite, whose help was invaluable. This is one way that regional arts organisations can really help artists – just by putting them in touch with people who can assist in practical one-off situations like this. I had a bit of a panic early on because it looked as though I’d brought far too few paintings; but actually an exhibition generally looks better with more space between the works, and it turned out to be just right – phew!
On Thursday I went back for the opening, which wasn’t as well attended as I’d have liked because it turned out the gallery hadn’t sent out personal invitations other than advertising it in their brochure. Moral: be careful where you show, and make sure the gallery does their bit! To be fair, it’s a venue which gets used by a lot of people (so the work will be seen, which is bound to be better than having it stored in the studio) and their commission is low, but I think that in future I’ll be careful to check the details of what a gallery does and doesn’t offer to do.
Actually I think I’m probably just grumpy because I have moved on a long way from most of the work that’s on show in this exhibition, and my concerns and love are now in the body of work I’m currently engaged with. I’m going to get into the studio now…
