From 15th – 21st October, I had residency of the Project Space in the R206 studios – which gave me a space to exhibit my now complete illustration of Cleyera orbicularis. I was slightly apprehensive of the idea of exhibiting my work, as there is so little of it – each illustration taking days to complete – but I put a positive spin on it, by deciding to see it as an opportunity to experiment with how I would want to exhibit and display my work (for example in the degree show).
As previously discussed, I had had some thoughts on certain elements of the display – for instance, I knew that I definitely wanted my design of a botanical label to be central in the exhibition – so it had to be central in display as well. (I did try it with the label to the left, however, it didn’t look even or visually correct – the idea of the botanical label is to reinforce the semantics that this is a living plant – rather than just an illustration or piece of art, and botanical labels are always displayed centrally to the plant.) I didn’t have time (or the funds at this stage) to frame my work – so I fixed it to the wall with blu-tack – however, this was a valuable exercise, as it proved that the works did in fact need framing – the whiteness of the page and the whiteness of the wall just blended together, confusing the distinction between the work and the room. I do not, however, want overpowering frames (this is something that I will come back to later, once I have proceeded further with my project) – rather frames with a narrow border, or either black or dark green (an idea of a friend: to use the green to reinforce the connection between the art and plants), which just create a separation between the work and the structure of the room – and bring the focus of the audience securely back to the work and the object of the project – rather than letting their attention wander.
The two images above show how I decided to display my work: the piece to the left is a photocopy of the drawing before I filled the leaves in, the central piece is the ‘final’ completed piece, and the piece to the right in a copy which I worked into. I decided not to add botanical labels to these, as these show working – and are not what I would want to exhibit for the completion of the project – but as this was an exhibition of my work so far – rather than an exhibition of my project – it seemed appropriate to exhibit them here. I am going to look further at the work Monument by Susan Hiller, not for the work itself – but the fact that it is made up of archive materials (which effectively, is what my project is going to be – an archive of the most endangered plants in the world), and I want to investigate the way in which she exhibited them, whilst retaining the key fact that they are an archive.
In addition to Cleyera orbicularis, I also exhibited two photocopies of my original illustration practices – which were crucial for developing my techniques and mastering the minimalism in detail that botanical illustration with pen and ink requires. These took less prominence than Cleyera orbicularis, as unfortunately, when I went to Kew Gardens and took the photo which I used as reference to draw these two images, I forgot to note the name of the flower, and I have been unable to identify it since. They were however key to my completion of Cleyera, so I chose to exhibit them alongside it.
Overall, I was extremely happy with my residency and exhibition of work – it was an invaluable experience of what it is like to have a space that is purely your own (something that I shall need for when I share my project with the world) to exhibit in and curate. The feedback I got from talking my peers through my work, and letting them explore the ideas that I have incorporated into it was fascinating and invaluable also. (For some, the semantics of the botanical label hadn’t even occurred – which is interesting, when I have invested much into the idea of people instantly understanding the semantics! However – I will stick with it, as I am also pleased with how the botanical label reacts with the work visually, and it would be a missing piece – I feel – if it were removed.)
