Update 08/06/22: The colour of the paint works really really well – the white of the page stands out really clearly against it, and the drawings down get lost in the wall. The green in the colour echoes the green of plants nicely, and compliments the dark green of the washy-tape too.
Update: 19/05/22:
I bought the paint for the space last night. I bought enough that will probably cover one wall of the space two times (so I can apply two coats of paint), which means that it seems likely I will only be able to paint the wall with the illustrations in the ‘grey-green’ colour, whilst the rewilding wall will remain plain white.
Over the past few weeks, I have been developing some plans on how I want to display my work for degree show. For my drawings this is very simple: I will be hanging them on the wall using dark green washi tape and pins, against a “dried rocket” coloured wall, as displaying my drawings against a slightly coloured background really makes them stand out from the wall (as shown below). I have decided to use the washi tape and pin method of hanging the drawings, as it will create a much more archival effect than having them framed which – as I want to emphasise the index quality of the work – is key. I will also of course have my plant labels, for which I have worked out a better, and much more professional method of production – getting them digitally printed, and then having them press mounted onto thick mounting card, from which we can (hopefully – although I need to go through this with Danielle) cut them out on the laser cutter, to achieve clean cuts.
As I have a large ‘corridor’ space in the studio for the degree show, I am going to devote one wall to my drawings and plant labels, whilst the other wall will be devoted to my rewilding project. I have drawn some plans of how I envisage the space looking for degree show below:
This plan shows how I envisage the wall of drawings and plant labels. As you can see, the composition of the works and labels on the wall, whilst being regimented and orderly, subvert the cube – due to a number of reasons – one of which being the varying sizes of the labels and drawings, which make it more difficult for uniformity to be achieved. Additionally, I hope to arrange the drawings and labels in an order which correlates with the initial research that I conducted, researching the most endangered plants of the world (thus displaying the works in the order in which they appear on the spreadsheet). My planned composition also still clearly references the works of Susan Hiller, whose works I looked at much earlier in the year, and particularly that of Monument (below) which has additional relevance through it consisting of photographs of labels on park benches – creating a subtle link between my botanical labels and Hiller’s use of labels.
Image Source: Hiller, S. (1980-1) Monument. [Installation] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hiller-monument-t06902 (accessed: 17 May 2022)
I am not 100% sure on the exact layout of the labels and drawings – whether I want it to be more regimented or have the breaks in pattern as I have drawn – but that is something that I will have to figure out on the wall when I am able to start hanging work.
The next element of the degree show that needs to be planned is the area for my Rewilding project. As I have illustrated below, I envisage this as sort of ‘museum’ set up – where it has been set up as though it was somewhere that someone was working and has recently vacated (as they do in museums). It seems unlikely that I will have actually started any planting of the rewilding project, due to the ideal planting times for the plants, and therefore largely need to be able to represent this side of my degree project through the maps and documents that I already have for the project.
The above drawings show an idea of how I feel I will exhibit the maps and plans, with a desk and chair set up, created an amphitheatre for the proposal of the project. I plan to print the maps and plans that I have off in large scale, to create a dominating wall, which looks as though it is being used to plan and monitor the project. I will additionally have relevant books (such as books on wildflowers) on the desk, and possibly some tools and pencils. Finally, I also plan to have dried cuttings of some of the plants I hope to plant in the rewilding project (such as Rowan) on the wall – which creates a direct link between my illustrations and the rewilding projects: as many of my illustrations are based on dried and pressed herbarium specimens. I plan to visit a few museums in order to see how they set up displays similar to this one (the museum I most want to reference here is Sutton Hoo, as there are certain similarities between my project and the land and exhibitions at Sutton Hoo): exploring how institutions use text and curation in order to clearly tell a story to the visitors/audience.
I am unsure on whether I will use the grey paint on both walls, or just the wall with the illustrations – this is something that I will have to work out as I go along. On one hand, having both walls painted grey creates a definite link between the works – making it explicitly clear to the audience that they are connected. On the other hand, the white might suit the idea and theme that I am trying to convey to the audience better. I may also vie impacted by the cost of the paint.
