Restarted

It’s two days since our exhibition opened –  three since the PV night…. and after the initial elation,  I’ve now got that ‘flat’ feeling.  After an opening, I always wish there was a flood of reviews ,  feedback … even the odd social media post , but there’s been nothing so far.  I know it’s early days, but we always hope for more don’t we ?

How do other artists generate interest ? Or is everyone the same ?

We haven’t posted the ‘official’ photos of the night yet, so maybe that will help.  The photos were taken by Cath’s partner, who thankfully did them for free,  so no extra costs there.
I only took a couple – before ‘the rush’ ( see below)  but they don’t really tell the story .

On the plus side , the exhibition looked good in the space ( not just me saying that!) We worked well together as a team and because of that we are planning more events .
I’ve also learned to promote myself more, which has always been a bit scary .

I just have to learn to sit and wait now , letting the exhibition speak for itself .

This morning, the 3 of us met at the exhibition space to do a final check before we  install our work on Monday .
We were really annoyed to find that the last exhibitors had left the walls in an appalling state. As a free independent gallery,  each exhibitor is given strict instructions to return the space to how it was before.
Not too much to ask really.
So our half hour meeting to have a chat and take some photos, turned into a couple of hours of filling holes and painting walls.

Work wise , I haven’t  been able to settle into it again. I hate everything I’ve done recently  and I don’t want to show it. I don’t know if it’s just the pressure of showing new work or just that I’ve got so much on just now.  I’m just glad that I worked hard at the beginning of the year so at least I have a small body of paintings.

I think we’ve done as much publicity as we can , so all we can do now is just hope that people turn up .

Something that I forgot to mention .. I was contacted recently by a Robert Bolick who had written a blog about me several years ago that I knew nothing about. He wanted me to update him on a few things .  It’s recently interesting to read other people’s take on your work . Read it here 

It’s been a busy week since I wrote my last blog.

The press releases have gone out to five different sites so far. These are the main ones here that reach the largest online presence : a-n events,  Art in Liverpool, Liverpool artists network, Eventbrite and Art Rabbit.  Hopefully people will read at least one of those.

After those had all been ticked off, I went on holiday.  Yes, I know its only a month since I went to Seville,  but I spend lots less on travel than I would on a studio space!

I went to Malta with a family member.  I saw several Caravaggio’s in the Cathedral there and listened to the audio talk on him.   ‘He  was always getting into fights’  . Ha ha that made me laugh.  Not the sort of thing I heard when I did Art History.

I briefly saw some of the Malta Biennale – the first time it had been staged there I believe .   What I did see were a lot of videos, which I’m not really a fan of.  We were only there for a few days, so didn’t want to spend the time traipsing from one site to another .   I wish there had been more outdoor stuff – that would have made it much more accessible.  But anyway, I’m glad that our trip coincided with the Biennale .

On my return to the UK, I checked the listings we’d made…. Yes, all had gone live.  We’ll do some follow ups in the next week or so.

Yesterday I went to the pop up exhibition space that convenience gallery had set up in Birkenhead.  I’d missed the opening  for  The town is the Gallery   as  I was away, so I was keen to see what they had achieved.

They had set up the space in an old M&S in town, which is a great idea.   It was quiet when I went, but I don’t know whether that was because it was morning or whether the general public were suspicious of the space. I’m used to going to gallery spaces on my own, but maybe the blacked out windows and not being able to see inside might be off-putting to others?

It is important to support other artists though – whether you go out to see their work or just to acknowledge what we have written on here.

I posted some of the images on my Instagram account and I think that alone has persuaded a few of my followers to pop in too.

Wendy Williams Instagram

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks planning our exhibition which will be held next month in Liverpool.

It took ages to decide a title even though we have a common theme of using memory or links to the past in all of our works.  Many titles were discussed, even more thrown out for being too political or just downright off putting.

Its important to get something simple, that defines all of our different styles of work but is not pretentious.

So ‘Reshaping the past’ it is.

The exhibition statement was an interesting  experience…. two of us – Catherine Harrison and I,  have exhibited together on many occasions – most recently when I took her work to Athens for Platforms Project.  Maybe for this reason, we’ve become a bit jaded over exhibitions.  We’ve put in so much effort in the past but really, the only people who show any interest are family and friends.

So I put absolutely no effort into the press release – what’s the point ?

At this stage artist No 3 – Sufea Mohamad Noor stepped in.  Oh my God – she’s like a human tornado ! Much younger than me, is a whizz at spreadsheets and dynamic in her approach.   Was I like that when I was younger? Is that why I achieved so much then and gone quieter over the years?    Did I just give up as it was too hard?

‘Think like a man’ she kept saying when we put a (very) brief bio together.  List EVERY achievement., no matter how small.  State where you studied…… what are your aims in your work?

I felt so uncomfortable with all that.  We just don’t shout about what we’ve done.

Invite curators to the exhibition ?? WHAT?  Never bothered doing that. What’s the point?

I’m just so shell shocked.

I’m going to roll out the press releases in the next few days , while hiding behind a cushion cringing at being so forward.

Yesterday, I finished installing an exhibition of work by NML’s Youth Engagement Forum. They’re a collective of young people who meet up at Liverpool Museums .

At the moment, all of the Liverpool museums ( World Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Museum plus several more not in the city centre ) are on strike due to a pay dispute.
So to cut a long story short, I was asked, as a freelancer there, if I would deal with this exhibition.

It was a difficult situation, but the exhibition had been planned for such a long time and CassArts ( where it was going to be held) were fully booked well into the future. Pulling out would mean them losing their slot indefinitely.  Plus, the theme of the exhibition was International Women’s day – happening this week.

What should have been a few hours work, turned out to be quite time consuming in the end. The students had sent me their statements, but they were all in different fonts and sizes, so that itself took a while to clean up.
I then had to join the main library to use their printing facilities. That was challenging, but I’d put it down as a learning experience for me – having never needed to use public pcs and printers before.  Thanks to the wonderful staff there  though for teaching idiot me how to print in colour 🙄
On arriving at the exhibition I found that most of the work was on paper, so that was just a case of spacing it out and attaching it to the wall with White Tac ( not allowed to use anything else on the walls there)

Three of the works were  framed , but they hadn’t attached any method of hanging on the back . Cass Arts have a wire and hook system .
Having had enough by then and not fancying traipsing round town to look for string or wire, I thought the easiest thing to do was just take them home and fix them there.
Returning on day two ( via the library again to print off more things ) I installed the final works.
I do hope people get to see the exhibition . Obviously the museum won’t be able to publicise the exhibition as they normally would.