Post exhibition

Last night was without a doubt one the of the proudest moments of my life. It gave me a taster of a real art exhibition. The past two weeks of blood sweat and toil have culminated in one of the best exhibitions of video, textiles, fine art, photography and graphics that I have ever seen.  This experience has made me truly understand what goes into putting up an exhibition on any scale.

I got some very positive feedback on my piece and was glad to have people asking questions about the context, items, choices.  The fact that people understood within a couple of minutes really meant a lot to me because it was one of the aims of the piece. To establish the focus and context behind the piece.  I liked the fact that people were taking time to read the quotation and synopsis, watch some of the video and then spend time looking into the cabinet. I think that the position that I was in really did serve its purpose and gave me a constant flow of people to chat to and show the piece to.

I don't think that we could have done any of this without the time and effort of our tutors Jamie Holman and Andy Piper. with there guidance we have put on a brilliant exhibition and had an experience that will no doubt help us in years to come. 

The final part of the unit is the evaluation which we will be doing tomorrow at college ahead of the 4th July. This is the last part before we submit our skecthbooks, blogs and pieces to be moderated by the UAL moderator that is visiting soon.

Exhibition (Day time)

The exhibition is finally here.  I spent most of today cleaning and tidying up the floors and peoples work spaces.  I helped shaun with his bar furniture and also gave him so ideas for displaying. 

Everybody chipped in to make this exhibition work and fingers crossed it will steal the show. I have every confidence that the event will be a success.  The past few weeks have flown by and I cant believe that its actually here.

Roll on tonight.....!

Pre Exhinition day 6

This morning I woke up and thought immediatley, the next two days are going to be brilliant.  I wasnt wrong.
 I am within touching distance of finishing and as a group we are well on track to finish on wednesday afternoon at the latest.

The only thing that was left to do today was draw up the design for the quotation, print it out, spray mount the print onto foam board and then mount it on the wall.  I did this part with Andy (Tutor) in AD20. We brought he quote up on illustrator and set the template requirements such as dimension, spacing etc. I then decided to give the background a theme, something that was easily recognisable and distinguishing. Yellow background, black font and a multi colour bar on the bottom.  This design was inspired by the Factory Records book by Mick Middles.  The book is featured in my piece and stands out easily. 

using the sticking pads, we mounted the quote on the wall at a good height for people to read. The synopisis would then either go to the side or underneath.

I am now officially ready for tomorrow and cannot wait to hear what people think of the work.

Pre Exhinition day 5

Today is the start of the final build up to the Exhibition. Everybody has worked so hard up to now and the exhibition is within sight.

Today I have started to look at the positions of the quote mounted on the wall, the synopsis and the spotights.  Also I have been lending a hand to people who needed some help. 
The spotlights have been mounted on to the water pipe above the cabinet and positioned accordingley. I have taped the cables to the back of the pipe to make it look a bit more tidy.
There are plenty of jobs that need doing that arent paramount of importance at the moment but they will come into play in the next two days, Little things like touching up walls, vacuming and cleanignt he carpets, floors in AD14. 
Furthermore today witht he help of Jamie (Tutor) I put up the curtain in the doorway.  This was easy enough to do.  There was a length of dowling painted white and a black curtain that had been adjusted.  All it needed was two holes to place the ends in which was done in about 15 mins.

Quotation for FMP installation

''People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth. Somebody to get off on when they can't get off on themselves. I think that's what Mick Jagger is trying to do...what Bob Dylan seemed to be for a while. A sort of God in our image...ya know? Mick Jagger came close but he got too conscious. For a while he gave me hope... I want it to be perfect, 'cause it's the only religion I got...in the old days people had a Jesus and those people to embrace... They created a god with all their belief energies... and when they didn't dig But it's too hard now. We're earthy people and the old saints just don't make it, and the old God is just too far away. He don't represent our pain no more. His words don't shake through us no more. Any great motherfucker rock'n'roll song can raise me higher than all of Revelations. We created rock'n'roll from our own image, it's our child... ''

In my opinion this quotation reflects a great deal on society and culture today.  Everybody has somebody that they want to be or wish they could be.  Also it talks a great deal about music acting as a 'religion' amongst the people of today.  The way we ritualize music listening to it and going to gigs like going to Mass or a church service.

Pre Exhibiton Day 4

My installation is nearly complete, The first thing I did today was get the monitor to college and go about getting it into place.  With the help of my Tutor, we mounted it on  the Plinth that I kept as a back up and drilled some screws into the wall to support it.  The Plinth just needed touching up with some white paint afterwards. 

I also started to look at Lighting the space that I am using.  There is a water pipe suspended above the cabinet which I am using for the moment to hold the Clip on lighting that has been provided. There are two spotlights that cover most of the wall space opposite.  There are still a few other ways that I would like to experiment with in order to find the easiest way to Light the space and walls and also hide the cables as there has been another extension cord added to power them.  I did think about taping the cables onto the pipe but this could be risky as it could weigh the pipe down in time. 

The quotation that I am using has been chosen from A book that Jamie suggested to have a look through for quotation.  I will post this in its entirety next.  This is going to be mounted on an MDF board which has been painted white.  The quote will then be printed onto foam mounting board and either spray mounted or PVA glued.

I still have Monday and Tuesday to try out different styles and techniques.  Also I have been told that the DVD will be ready for Monday and I wil be able to test the installation in full on Monday.

Pre Exhibiton Day 3

My first job was to paint the second coat onto the cabinet sides, top and bottom. I did this first because logically it would give me enough time to get the finish right and for it to dry. 

I have got an extension cord that I have taped to the skirting board down the corridor and rested on the pipes above the space where the monitor will go. The cabinet has been finished and all the objects have been placed inside ready.  We did have a few problems getting the perspex into the grooves that Bill had put into the wood but after giving them a go over with a saw, they were slightly deeper for the perspex to fit in. 

Another potential problem was getting hold of lighting for inside the cabinet, I nearly managed to get hold of some lighting strips from a previous exhibition but they were missing the chokes and cables needed to plug them in.  After fitting the cabinet together I decided to leave it without as it is wide enough and draws some light from the fire exit sign above.  Plus any light given off from the monitor will add to it aswell. The other lighting situation is the wall that will have the quotes on, This will probably be from the spotlights that clip on. There is a water pipe directly across that can hold them perfectly.

Finally before I left I talked to my tutors about printing the quotes on to card and then mounting them on the wall. They suggested mountign them on foam and then placing them together.
I now have to mount the monitor and choose the quotes/quote to use and how to print and place it on the wall.

Tomorrow will be another day of hard work which will hopefully be the finishing day. On an unrelated note Im going to watch The Horrors in Manchester which will hopefully leave me with more inspiration and ringing ears all day.

Pre Exhibition week day 2

Today I have made a massive leap in terms of progression. I have painted the walls of my space and made sure they are suitable. I have also provided a back up plan for the monitor bracket, I will use a Wooden plinth to rest the monitor on. I am hoping that I will not have to use it though. 

Also I have got the materials for my cabinet and have put together about 60% of it.  The measurements have been shortened to 13''x 68.5'' and the persepex has been cut to similar measurements. The cabinet is supported by 3 brackets which are positioned at each point.  I have put up the brackets and put together the base and sides which have also been routed to slide the perspex in. These are already fixed to the brackets and I have given them a base coat of white Vinyl matt. Tomorrow I will paint them again so that they are ready for final assembly.  Also my dad has supplied 45 meters of black lining for the cinema which is being turned in to curtains for the cinema walls.

Tomorrow I want to get the cabinet finished so Friday is free to get the monitor in place and solve any problems that may rise.  Also I have finalised the plans for a loop on the DVD with Brian which should be ready for Monday/ Tuesday.

Pre Exhibition week day 1

This week I have started my work on the exhibition space. I Have been working on several other peoples spaces aswell. There is a great deal of work that revolves around the entire group like the cinema for instance. The majority of the class are going in AD14.  This is where the boards have been put up and the exhibition space is starting to take shape. 

I on the other hand have been advised to change  to a bigger space to support my installation . I am now going to put my work in the corridor leading to AD14.  This will get all of the benefits of being in the room but will allow for a longer space that will support my shelves and monitor.  Also the brick walls will be far more sturdy for mounting than the ply wood boards.

I also have the use of three walls and am considering what to do with the thrid wall.  Potentially it could be a place for the quotes to be hung.  Alternativley my tutors talked with me about using the space to place another quote that can summarize the piece.  I need to think about the quote and how this will be mounted.

The final piece that I have changed slightly is the shelving. Instead of usingshelves which are bracketed I am going to build a cabinet that will hold all the objects.  The cabinet will have a perspex/acrylic front to protect the contents. We have done some initial measurements the cabinet will be 12''x80'' approximatley and the cabinet will be 13'' deep to give enough height for taller or longer objects.

I will be posting pictures all week to show the progress I am making and hopefully the space will be ready for Friday.  I am aiming for Friday so that I can use Monday and Tuesday to make the finishing touches and get the quote prints perfected. 

Screen shot walkthrough

I have decided to put screenshots in my sketchbook that will be accompanied by diagrams of the piece to illustrate the movements and positions that have been used in the piece.

These will be annotated with explanations of choices, reasons for positions etc.  Hopefully I will have most of the sketchbook work up to date before the exhibition. That way I can concentrate on that area of work, the manifestation of the installation and the blog aswell.

Holiday tidy up

This week we are on half term and I am currently tidying up my sketchbooks and work for submitting as well as preparing to type up the finalized version of my evaluation.  The evaluation will map out the high and low points of the process, the areas of strength as well as any potential weaknesses. My sketch book is looking good as far as content goes, I have covered every aspect of the project in here from highlighting the primary influences such as Michael Landy, Maya Deren to scaled models of the potentials of exhibiting the piece. I'm hoping that this blog will correspond to my sketchbook almost page for page.

Also this week I will be thinking about the comign weeks int he build up to the exhibition night and produce a timetable of work for the next two/three weeks.  This will concentrate on hours needed to put the presentation together and then make sure that everything is ready such as items and props used.

I am extremely excited for the next couple of weeks and intend to work very hard in making this piece work not just as a video piece but as fully exhibited film.