Liverpool.

Ventured to Liverpool today. I went to look at the Glam exhibition in the Liverpool Tate Gallery first. I felt like it was quite portentous and I always had the feeling that the invigilators were suspicious of me. But perhaps that's just my own paranoia playing up on me. The booths which hosted video projections were quite good as the black walls allowed full focus on the screen. However, some of the video pieces presented via TVs had their audios lost through the muffled noise throughout the space. I particularly like the room full of an installation that looked like a party from the era had just occurred  as well as the work by Richard Hamilton. The use of coloured paint on some of the walls brought out the power of colour and literal 'glam' of the era, however I left feeling more like I had been to a museum than an art gallery, with the many articles and items from the time overshadowing the artworks.

I also visited the Liverpool Bluecoat in order to see Mark Leckey's 'The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things'. This exhibition I found particularly interesting. The arrangement of otherwise unrelated items/ objects/ works came together to create narratives. The gallery presented oddities as norms to represent a bigger picture of the world. Fact and fiction blurred into one as I progressed through the rooms. I left the gallery with a feeling of seeing the monstrous deformity of the world.

Room Design.

After thinking about curtaining off the windows, Ali came up with the idea to present a washing line over the curtains full of 'dirty washing'. If each of us bring a few items of clothing in and peg them up we'll have a collaborative piece in the exhibition which I think will help convey our intentions.

Jenna, Ali and I are going to create a mini scale mock up of the space so that we can play around with the placing of the artworks. I also discussed the possibility of my video now being presented as a desk like installation which the group seemed happy with, especially if Becky definitely does want to use the dark room as well, it may work better.

Research, Posters and To Do.

Me, Ali, Jenna and Charlotte explained our findings from researching the mentioned artists. We discussed our findings of the research we carried out individually. Ali reported back on Gillian Wearing’s work which we decided drew many parallels to our own ideas for the exhibition. However, we realized that we had already incorporated many similar ideas into Behind Closed Doors. After I discussed the work of Marina Abramovic we decided her work was particularly extreme and while her work has a shock factor, we want our exhibition to feel much more personal and not let a single performance out do our individual work. Charlotte explained the Milgrim Experiment to us all, however we decided that it was much more focused on a social response than a personal one. Finally, Jenna explained Chris Burden’s work and how he looked into the danger to one’s self. While his work is interesting, it wasn’t found to be particularly relatable as we are looking onto emotional repression and limitations rather than physical ones.

Becky explained her final concept for her artwork, which means we can now plan out the space. We thought about using curtains to cover the windows in order to create a more enclosed and secretive space. I think this would successfully portray our intentions through the use of the space. 

After looking at the poster designs that me and Charlotte had created, it was decided that the use of the key was the favourite idea as it portrayed the connotations of unlocking secrets. It was also decided that we would like to have a ‘Coming Soon’ poster to display before we state the date to create intrigue.

Charlotte mentioned that there was a possibility of radio advertising which would be a nice touch, but we need to look further into this. Becky also said that she might be able to get ahold of a door that we could use for the entrance of the gallery space (the group verdict was to drop the downstairs room) so she's going to look into that. We're still unsure about the availability of dividing walls so Ali's going to chase that up, while Charlotte and I continue to work on the posters. Jenna's going to look at where best to place the posters. I'm a bit concerned that we haven't seen much of Rachael lately, but aside from that I think we're communicating well as a group.

After the meeting, me and Charlotte discussed poster designs that we could move forward with. I think we both like the idea of a keyhole or key on the poster, so we'll come up with some more designs for next time. Ali also gave us an image of two doors incase it helped us, so I'll play around with the image to see what I can do.

I need to type up the minutes from today's meeting to hand out tomorrow, then I think it's time for bed.

Designing Posters

Ready for monday's meeting, I designed some initial poster ideas today. At the moment, me and Charlotte are still working separately in order to come up with a range of ideas to get feedback for. After deciding on black and white for the posters and the mention of looking at doors, shadows and light, I quickly put a few designs together.

Ian Brown's Curatorial Practice

Ian Brown presented a lecture on his own experiences on how best to prepare for an exhibition. I think preparation was the key here which urges me to begin the planning of the arrangement. While we have a month left before our exhibition, I reckon it'll creep up on us before we know it!

In a group meeting after the lecture, we each discussed the development of our own pieces so that be could begin to think of the requirements for each work. My work has now developed into a video piece and so ideally I want to be in the dark room, which the group agree with, but I'll have to look at sourcing a projector and perhaps an extension cable. The rest of the group seem quite certain on their own pieces and so it allowed us to think of an initial plan for the space.

We were thinking of using dividing walls to break up the gallery space but still need to find out whether this is possible or not. As well as coming to a final decision about whether we are going to use both gallery spaces, or just stick to the level four space upstairs. I feel like we should challenge ourselves with the space, especially as Anna mentioned it, but ultimately the group seems to feel as though we wouldn't be able to fill two separate spaces.

For our next meeting we've decided to look at the initial poster designs that me and Charlotte have come up with, look over the final version of the proposal that Jenna wrote up and feedback to the group on the artists that we researched following our meeting with Anna and Stephen. This means I need to look at the work of Marina Abramovic by then.

After the session I began to think about ways to get the viewer to interact better with the show. I designed some cards that could be used to enable the viewer to leave their 'confession' as well as being able to detach a business like card to take away with them. I'll have to discuss this in our next meeting on monday.

Outside the White Cube

Anna presented a lecture about curating and exhibiting in spaces other than traditional gallery spaces today. I found it really interesting to learn of the variety of different ways that artists are presenting their work to the public. In particular I thought that the use of old disused council owned spaces, rented out with a peppercorn rent was a great idea. I really look forward to being able to present my work in alternative spaces like the ones she mentioned in the future as I believe it to be a nice change from the usual white walls. I think it boosted our confidence as a group as well about trying to alter the gallery space to create a particular feel.

Judgement Day

We had our meeting with Anna and Stephen to go through our proposal this morning.

They gave us some artists names to research about viewer interaction (Gillian Wearing, Chris Burden, Marina Abramovic) and were told we needed to come up with strategies for a lack of engagement (which made me feel better about my previous apprehension of the confession booth).

Anna thought that we weren't being ambitious enough which I think came as a surprise to all of us. She thought we should use both spaces that we had been looking at as galleries in order to explore ideas in a 'White Cube' and perhaps help to create a contrast within the exhibition. (Perhaps have a collective installation in the downstairs space and individual spaces upstairs.) I think we were all a bit concerned with filling two spaces with only six pieces of work. I understand that galleries need white space to provide the viewers with some 'rest' space, but I'm still not sure how'd we'd manage with both spaces. Although I feel that it's a challenge we should undertake as Anna seemed quite convinced that we'd be able to manage.

Stephen mentioned that we need to generate an ambience with our curation rather than trying to discover it ready made so I think we really need to get onto making the works so that we can play around with the curation in order to find a way that works best.

The use of candles has not been allowed due to the fire hazard (which I was expecting, and rather relieved to hear.) While a single candle that is being supervised could be used, I think we all realised it was a little unnecessary.

We discussed the possibility of restricting access to one viewer at a time, and began to talk about theatrical interaction ( told to look at Tinho Segal). I think this will be a bit of a challenge to find a professional and effective way to carry this out, but if we manage it I think it will really add to the feel of the show.

They liked the idea of a contract which scared me a little. We need to research  about what a contract entails and what route we want to take with it and were told to look at the Milgrim Experiment for ideas of permission. I just worry about what we will do if people decline the contract and so end up with no viewers. From a personal point of view, I think it would put me off. They liked the idea of the ‘confession box’, but we need to think of its design which much like the contract is going to be difficult to find a way for it to be successful.

We discussed the necessity of creating some sort of room design (floor plans, models etc) and agreed to preview each other’s work to ensure that sizing, presentation and order of each piece can be taken into account when putting the exhibition together.

I feel a lot more confident about my ideas for my individual piece of work now as well, as do I think we all, so hopefully we'll have them all completed soon so we can start to sort out an arrangement.