It’s a really weird feeling, deciding to have my work removed from an exhibition. Weird, but I feel a huge sense of relief about it.
Friends on facebook will already know about the WCAF saga, but for the sake of others (and a record for myself) I’ll go through the details.
Due to time restrictions, I haven’t been able to get across to Warrington since the exhibition (the Warrington Contemporary arts festival) opened on 3 October. I was going to go next week.
But then, several people, who had seen the exhibition started to contact me, alarmed at the way my work had been exhibited.
I searched for images from the PV night and found this…
I don’t think I could describe the shock. It looked awful, the plinth was clearly far too small and really, it would only take a child to grab the truck and the whole thing would fall off. (Plus, it was back to front….. but that’s just an irritation) I mean, who would look at that and think it was OK?
It was difficult to get in touch with the gallery as no one responded to the original address on the email. I tweeted them and got a response to try a different email address. I did this, but no one responded to that either.
I’ll just add here that I prefer to email as its easier to keep a record of what was said ( past experience and all that)
Then I was sent 4 images of my work by the Interpretation & Design Officer at the gallery. He thought that’s what I was requesting. On my reply, he asked me to send the original email again ( this was the 3rd time I’d sent it)
I’d deliberately kept my email very light, thanking them for showing my work and suggesting that perhaps a board could be placed under the piece to support it. I would be more than happy to pay for this board.
In response to this, I received an email off someone more ‘senior’ at the gallery , stating that my work should only have been accepted if I had provided a large plinth.
Oh OK, so its my fault apparently :-(
I’m just accepting that this was an open exhibition, they didn’t have enough plinths – or maybe they just accepted too many works? It doesn’t matter. I just want my work out.
I don’t want to enter any more ‘opens’, it just isn’t worth it.
