For most of last week I was in London visiting galleries, soaking up the culture (and the water!) in the pouring rain! Whilst this explains my absence on here for most of last week I must now apologize for the following bombardment of posts as I begin to analyse my thoughts on each exhibition I visited.
When writing a list of which galleries and exhibitions I wanted to visit I naturally swayed more towards the ones which I felt were more relevant to my work, either in subject matter or process/material etc. What I realise now, however, is the importance in going to see completely different work from your own, to consider new ideas and approaches to particular subject matter.
My first port of call was the V&A Museum of Childhood. I’d decided to go and see what this had to offer to have a change of pace to my gallery romps. I like to draw new ideas from various sources and hoped I would be able to gain a different perspective in how to explore my own childhood in my artwork from this visit.
Much of the museum is made up of glass cabinets which house typical childrens toys. Whilst this made me contemplate the potential for me to use such items in my artwork, I can’t say I found the displays particularly engaging.
It was only certain cabinets, containing items I could relate to, which encouraged me to recall my own memories. For example, one cabinet exhibited seaside related items which made me think about the many jaunts to the seaside that I have taken with my family over the years. As I did not go abroad until I was 17, every summer my Mum would have 2 weeks off work and, along with my sister and step-dad, we would visit many different coastal towns in East Anglia. These included Felixstowe, Clacton, Walton, Great Yarmouth, Cromer…the list goes on.
From merely viewing this particular cabinet in the museum, I began to think about how significant those days at the beach were for me. Looking over my family photo albums, many feature photographs of these trips to the seaside which have become almost a family tradition I suppose. Just thinking about it now I feel quite nostalgic and realise how much I want to pursue the idea of creating a series of pieces which embody these memories.
…my notebook sits beside me, the pages scrawled with thoughts I had whilst in the exhibition. Many of these thoughts seem unimportant now. It is interesting to look back on my initial speculations and to consider how my ideas have changed in less than a week. I’m hoping this is a sign of good things to come, to take a step back from the giant web of ideas in my head and decipher which are the strongest and which are the most important to me.
