This is something I wrote for a project we have been set at university in preparation for our degree show. The project was to create three proposals based on our current practice but without considering money, time or space constraints. This is the first of my proposals:
Maps show us the way. Maps in galleries show us the directions to a piece of work, a particular room in the gallery or in which order we are encouraged to view the work. The later is more common in exhibitions of specific artists, such as the map pictured to the right showing the recent exhibition of Pipilotti Rist’s work at the Hayward gallery.
The gallery, according to Pontus Hultèn, is a space to be traversed. There is a tradition of the gallery as a place to stroll and become immersed in the work that the gallery map contradicts. I would change this by placing my own altered versions of gallery maps within galleries, amongst their own, or even replacing them altogether. The altered map would differ from the original in a few ways, depending on the nature of the gallery and the map. A proposed route would be changed, or the numbers indicating the position of a piece of work would become letters or numbers that do not correspond with the numbers next to the text. Room numbers would be changed and the maps original purpose would not be fulfilled. Instead, there would be concentration on the work within the gallery and a stronger sense of exploration and discovery.
I’m not sure that this is something that I wish to pursue anymore, but it has got me started on thinking about work I can make from the research that I have been doing.
Inside the gallery we are comfortable to put ourselves in situations that we might otherwise avoid. If we were approached in the street to go and see someone’s apartment or a space some had made would we do it? The minute the word ‘art’ is attached to something it feels safer, more legitimate, never more so than within the walls of a gallery.
Why is it that we feel safer within the environment of the gallery, why are we more likely to take part in something within such a space? There is an assumption that we will come to no harm inside an institution where there are health and safety rules to be met. But what if the situation is not as safe as first thought? Or what if something appears to go wrong?
I have begun considering the nature of the gallery space in my work since these ideas arose from my installation Blind Room. My next few blog entries shall look into various ideas relating to the gallery space and the spectator within these spaces.
I keep another blog through tumblr which up until now has been about the issues I have faced with my practice and what I am doing leading up to our degree show. I find blog writing a really useful way to sort through ideas in my head and articulate what I am trying to do.
My next couple of entries on here, as well as the two previous entries are intended to get this blog up-to-date with my tumblr blog. I will then keep them fairly similar, though with more emphasis on issues relating to our degree show on here.
Talking of degree shows, we have yet to have a proper meeting about ours, hopefully they will start next week!
That people are willing to become participants to installations such as Blind Room, that are disorientating and create feelings of panic or fear, shows the power of the gallery space on the actions of the spectator. Would you, for example, go in to a pitch black room if someone asked you to anywhere other than a gallery? If someone on the street said, hey come and have a look in this room where you can’t see anything, you probably wouldn’t go in. Maybe that’s a slightly unfair way to put it, but you would perhaps be less likely to do something like that in a public space than in a gallery space. Is this because you go to a gallery expecting to be asked to do things that evoke certain emotions, and it is after all in a gallery so it must be safe.
There is a type of social-cultural contract within a gallery, within most spaces, that tells us how we must act. Martin Creed’s piece at the Tate Britain with runners sprinting up and down the main hallway, showed something of how we expect people to act within a gallery.
I am still trying to decide where to go next with my art practice. I like the idea of challenging our notions of what could go on in a gallery space but I think that this moves away from what I want to concentrate on more; the spectator as a medium for making art.
Edit- 28/2/12
After writing this I worked on some ideas for a maze installation within our studios. I never wrote an entry about it as ideas about gallery space took over and I never actually made the installation. What I did make were models of what I would’ve made. The maze would have had arrows on the walls, with the idea that those entering would follow the arrows without realising that they led them in a circle. I was also planning on using changing lighting to disorientate the visitor and make it harder to tell that they had been in the space already. Pictured is the model that I would’ve created in life-size had other things not taken over.
Last term for our interim presentations I experimented with installation. Blind Room was the result. At the time I had been looking a lot at the control of the artist over the spectator with works that require a more active role from the spectator. This is what I wrote my dissertation about.
The interior of Blind Room was completely devoid of light rendering sight useless within the space. This means that the audience must rely upon their sense of touch to guide them as they grope around the space. The lack of any light means that the atmosphere of the space instantly becomes ominous and removes the audience from a comfortable situation. Structures built within the space cause it to be harder to navigate and find your way around. There is no way to regain your sense of sight within the space, you must leave the space to be able to see again. There is a growing desire to leave the space, the longer you are in it, and difficulty finding your way out increases this desire. When you have left the space it is a relief though the harshness of the light from the studio is dazzling.
Inside Blind Room on the second day. Bits of light began to appear as the cardboard came away from the windows. The brighter weather also meant the light that came through was stronger than the day before. It was still dark enough within the room that when facing away from the source of light you could not see anything.
I have since moved away from creating installations and as mentioned in my blog intro, have begun to look at the nature of the gallery space.
