Karart Blog

To find a name that fits how you want your work to be read, that reinforces the narrative that you see as present in the work but at the same time leaves a little for the viewer to decide and make up their own mind about is not the easiest thing for me to do. It took a long time and I nearly opted out and used “untitled” but in the end I got there. Hopefully, with more practice, it will get easier!

1.Gaea Nimbus – Gaea is a greek earth goddess. Nimbus is a cloudy luminous aura surrounding a goddess when visiting earth.

2. Onna-Bugeisha Diptych – Onna-Bugeisha is a Japanese awesome girl with a great sense of humour and also the name for a woman warrior.

3.4.5. Female Penumbra – Penumbra is the partly shaded region around the shadow of an opaque body. A partial shadow.

Now I have decided and hung the final pieces for the degree show I can investigate how to display the paintings on the acetate sheets. I wanted to use light boxes but one of those went phut! so I am thinking of my original idea of a way of fixing them to the windows.

I have black tape and two sheets of mount board so I am going to see what it will look like. It may block out too much of the light into my show space so I don’t want anything too permanent – yet.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015,Acrylic on acetate sheet, both 40cmx45cm

Here they are in a photograph shown side by side. Stepping back they look good but not quite right. Perhaps I need to reduce the black surround?

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, acetate sheet, tape, hardboard on windows, 40cmx45cm.

When you have been allocated your space to display your work for the degree show, my checklist was all about the PREP to hang the work BUT when I had hung, removed, repaired the walls and re-hung my work more than twice and still not sure it’s in the right or best place,  I now know that the real work starts with the hanging – it’s the start of the hard bit NOT the end of it!

Anyway back to the hanging re-think…..

I have removed the large canvas on the right hand side and replace it with a small (50x40cm) canvas. It has a pale background so appears to be emerging from the white wall. The scale between it and the wall makes a very powerful statement, small but commands the viewer to look because of this comparison. Just need to think of a strong title.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 50cmx40cm.

Unfortunately a photograph taken standing back from the work doesn’t show as it’s white on a white wall, so I have resorted to a close up just to give an idea (looks better in real life promise).

Turning my attention to the final left hand wall I have hung five canvases in a line.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, All acrylic on canvas, all 50cmx40cm.

Standing back from them, discussing with several people, I realise that they are vying for attention and are being viewed as a group and not as individual works that tell part of a narrative contained in them all.

What I need to do is take away one painting first – still not working!
Take away another – looking better, three is good but not in the order they are hung!
This is looking good. They now have individual space AND work well together – a triptych!

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, All acrylic on canvas, all 50cmx40cm.

Viewing all of the pieces on the wall that I have finally selected (with help) they now have a cohesive look and feel. They have individual space to breathe, are powerful pieces individually but don’t overpower each other. I now need to put titles on these!

• Have hung the large diptych on the wall
  

  Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 180cmx120cm & 80cmx120cm.

As I wanted the mask to sit on top of the females face I experimented with how to do this and came up with the idea of magnets. One on the back of the mask, and one on the back of the canvas.

How to hold the magnet on the back of the canvas? I cut and extra wooden strut, fixed the magnet to that and then secured the strut to the stretcher. It was great solution because if the magnet had fallen away the only way to retrieve it would be to take the work off the wall.

Have hung the large diptych on the wall.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Peacock Masquerade, Acrylic on canvas, 180cmx120cm.

Again she is wearing a mask, so I did the same thing using magnets to hold it in place. Stepping back it looks ok but doesn’t sit in harmony with the other.

Laying out the paintings for the last wall space.I selected the darker background pieces as they work within the overall theme of my space, or at least they really work with the diptych.

This is harder to plan than I thought it would be.

I have measured out my space for the degree show and can begin to plan what pieces of my work I am going to hang. I have drawn a rough scale drawing of the space.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Pencil on A3 paper sheet.

BUT first step is to clear everything from the space and make good and paint the walls (white walls first) and I am going to use this as thinking time!

Although I have definitely decided on which piece to put on the wall facing the opening and the right hand side wall, the left hand wall is a little trickier as the other pieces of my work are much smaller and I will need to really think about how best to represent my theme of exploring figurative forms and its concealment and decoration.

Plan of action:-

• Hang the large diptych on the facing wall
• Hang the other large canvas on the right hand wall
• Stand the rest of the small canvas portraits against the left hand wall and see how it all fits together.
• Hang the selected smaller pieces
• Put up the postcard holder (I remembered last year’s show used these, they looked good and meant that you didn’t need anything taking floor space to put them onto)
• STAND BACK AND SEE HOW THE SPACE WORKS AS A WHOLE!