Installation day yesterday.
I set out from Cross Roads with my pasting table and contents, struggling on the bus and train with it, bumping into lots of people, apologising profusely. Its less portable and much heavier than I thought but I made it to Leeds and the exhibition house just about in one piece. Was totally excited to see the house – a 3 story red brick building right on the main road next to the Met Uni.
I met the curator Louise Atkinson, who is doing an amazing job, curating and coordinating such a large exhibition -over 80 artists involved – in such a short period of time. Highly admirable. Though it was just the first day of installation, already the house is looking intriguing, as a few other artists were there putting up work in the rooms,which are broadly themed. I can’t wait to see the Madwoman in the Attic room when its ready.
Got a great spot for the pasting table installation – on the top floor, next to the window. It took 4 hours to install – a lot longer than expected, but it was so nice just doing it slowly, meeting other artists dropping by, and just hearing the sounds of a show being put up as the sun shone through the window- hammering, discussions, running up and down stairs… calls for pollyfilla…Kind of maximal pleasure really.
The piece looked quite different from how it had in the home studio – different room, different light. Although the placing of the image and text elements are pretty close to what I had, it somehow looks and feels different. I ended up discarding most of the photographic elements and the found text from the childrens books. I worked more simply with traced images and typewritten text from 3 song lyrics which are significant to me.
The piece has turned out very differently to how I originally envisaged, but I am happy with this. The images and text ‘disapear’ into the map pages and they have to be discovered and searched for. I like this.
What I wasn’s so sure about was how these elements ‘sat’ on the surface physically – they are not dead flat and there is an awareness when you look at the piece that you are looking at ‘bits of paper’. If these were ‘stuck down’ it would e much more of an integrated, collaged piece, but I have resisted this as it felt important to have them free floating and provisional.
I don’t see the piece as a finished work, but as a work in progress. I am hoping it will evolve more after this first outing, and to use the format to make site specific work for other group shows. Private view on Friday eve – will be good to get some feedback then.
