Arts Institute at Bournemouth

Jupiter Room

We worked it out, and from the first time we sat down together to discuss how we would go about putting on and what we would produce for our two person show, its been five months. Its certainly been the biggest project I've undertaken, especially as between the two of us we've shared almost all aspects of running an exhibition, but its also been the most rewarding and confidence boosting for taking on similar projects in the future. We ended up getting a few people from Poole arts development team on board and they were massively helpful when it came to areas new to us, for instance locating a suitable space and promoting the event. I think we approached them at the right time also, we had enough of a picture in our heads through our conversations that we could write a detailed proposal and talk them through what we were trying to achieve. This meant they could step in at the same point as us and be equally exciting about realizing our plans. Through the council we got in contact with a local estate agent that gave us access to a dis used property that had sat white washed and undisturbed for a good deal of time, enhancing the narrative behind the work.

Making the work went relatively smoothly, Krystle sat at the foot of the mountain that was her slow and arduous task of re-sewing a near square meter of carpet, a situation she seems to strangley enjoy within her practice. I sourced a huge amount of fluorescent tubes from both the art school and the main university but found it a great deal more difficult getting hold of the numbers of plug sockets i was going to need to fill our designated space. It was the decision to make the plug sockets and hand cut the sockets holes, rather than building structures from existing sockets, that really brought the work together for me. I enjoyed how both the lights and the sockets went through a simply repetative process, the lights burning out and leaving black rings at each end and the plugs being hand cut which made each item unique, giving an organic quality to these very un-organic both materials and objects.

Another success of the work was how its existance within the shop made not only the shop itself apart of the work but also the structure housing the work, the audience coming to see the work and even the numerous other empty shops within the area and when these were seen and thought about. Because we had the shop setup in this un inviting manner there was a forced slowing down for the veiwer and this was definatley what i wanted when having the work just a few steps away from a busy street, the work was an enviroment where one would spend time in and think about what has happen both suggestively and physically.

Something I enjoyed about making Tunnels was how the work stayed active, and there are ways in which i want to explore this with Jupiter Room. We had talked about adding a sound peice to the work but never got around to exploring the possibility, i had discoverd that when the flourescent tubes are stacked and compressed together they make this wonderful static sound, you can hear it without seeing any movement with the structure. I'd wanted to record this and have it playing as an atmospheric element to Jupiter Room, what i think i'm going to do now is re-exhibit the Flourescent tubes in greater abundance and sitting in an open wooden crate as if they have been harvested as an ever growing sample from their original environment. I really like this idea that sculpture is not something that just sits stale and inactive as soon as its completed but something that is eternally active by what it gives each time it is veiwed.

Something that has been amazing with this exhibition and sorting everything out ourselves is the creative control over each element, working with another artists has been hugely rewarding also, discoverying what we are actually doing together, Jupiter Room was not a direct collaboration more the result of a running dialogue between two artist's practice and doing this finding out alot about my own practice.