We had a pop-up exhibition at Firstsite, Colchester, on the 26th November. It was exciting to be exhibiting in such a large and well-known space. We spent the morning setting up the work and then the show was open to the public from 1pm till 3pm, then had an hour to take the work down. I had been slightly unsure about what work I was putting in as I was questioning my presentation rather a lot and got confused as to what message I was trying to convey. I was worrying a bit too much about something that was only up for a few hours, so I decided to use it as an opportunity to experiment with context and how to display work effectively as well as also have some more time in the Bruce McLean exhibition that I have found so influential.
I wanted to use the Bruce McLean work as inspiration for the Pop-Up exhibition. I connected with the work that was showing and felt that it was one of the best exhibitions that Firstsite had put on, at least of the ones that I have seen. I considered my reactions to the work and how the connection only formed once I had been told about the meanings behind some of the piece or how they were painted; the context. I thought that if I hadn’t known about those things I would have found the work a lot less appealing. His photography and use of contact sheets connected well with the photography work I had been doing for the studio module. His ideas and his thoughts on challenging conventions and the role of the art critic could easily be used in my dissertation. The connections were there for me but I wondered about those who didn’t quite get to that stage when walking around. His array of various mediums could possibly discourage a number of viewers as they wonder whether all the work is of the same artist, whereas for me this was more of the appeal. I do not particularly have one medium and tend to use lots of different materials also.
I wanted to document other thoughts of people looking around the exhibition. I look my Nan and my Mum along with me one day and showed them around the exhibition. I didn’t tell them anything that I had recently found out about the work I just let their first impressions take hold. I recorded their conversation as they went round and took a series of film photos of them interacting with the space, never of them closely. The photos would get the idea of them interacting with the exhibition without it becoming personal.
My intention was to combine the two. The conversation for me was the most interesting part, my Nan picked up on the elements that I knew she would. That some of the paintings looked like children could paint them, or the simplicity and humour of some of the others that she really did not connect with. These are a few snippets of the conversation that I thought were key and also featured greatly in the work:
Whats she taking a photo of Carol. Just ignore her.
Do you want me to speak? There’s nothing to speak about.
I told you to take photos of my bins yesterday.
Nan’s on to a winner there Mum.
Has he done all these? Yeah all of these are his work, yeah.
I see I like them ones over there though. Did he do them? Beautiful, absolutely.
Do you not like it then Nan?
I think its lovely, I like the ones I can understand.
Sometimes you need to be told about it.
If somebody explained it to you you could relate to it a bit, some of them you think a little kiddy could do it but you couldn't obviously.
No, you’re right they couldn’t.
What I found most interesting was the points that my Nan raised without much of a push. She questions the originality of works by stating that I could just go take the same photos. As well as considering the variety of works that one person can do. Most importantly my Nan states the value of being told about something in order to connect more with the work in question. What children cannot do is create the context and the meaning, it is the intention behind the work that makes a difference.
The photographs that game out were very abstract and dynamic, the light was very bright in the room so that contrast was particularly high which made them tricky to print; I had to burn in certain sections in order for them to look right. The original idea was to have four of the photographs with four sections of the writing as a caption under each one. The images I chose were the ones that really displayed the first site space and my Mum and Nan interacting with the recognisable work on the walls. I had been experimenting with an old typewriter and found that this was a professional and clear way to write on these statements out, it looks intentional and adds an anonymous feel to the work.
This plan for the work did come together in the end, however I had a slight upheaval in the middle where I questioned the effectiveness of the photographs. I planned on placing them in the Firstsite space away from our allocated location. The work would become a comment on the Bruce McLean exhibition. I wanted to include an email address on the back which asked for feedback. I realised that these photographs would be too big to place discreetly around the space, and so tried out many different means of making them smaller whilst also working with the writing. It became very complicated and stressful as no other format was really working. It was at this point that my tutor suggested I use the Pop-Up exhibition as a tool, instead of worrying about a finished outcome, I use the show to experiment with different ways of displaying the work.
I was set on using the photographs and the words combined, and so made copies of all of these various sizes and versions that I had tried. I also took with me the original three photographs with the captions underneath. I then created a short video with a slide show of the images set to the sound recording of the actual conversation I had with my family on the day. My aim was to test out these different formats and see which ones got the best results and feedback.
In reality it didn’t quite work out that way, although I knew this was the case because having to make the work in the space did not allow for mistakes to happen, if the show was on for an extended period of time technology problems could have been worked around, in this case there was just not enough time. There was something wrong with the system at Firstsite that wouldn’t allow for the sound from the video on my laptop to play. I decided not to show the film at all because it was only at this point that I realised the importance of the sound. The sound for me was the most effective, it immersed you in that atmosphere as you heard the children in the background and people talking, footsteps walking around the exhibition, it took you back to that time, made you mentally track their movements. Sound also allows for the viewer to use their imagination and picture what is happening, although sometimes I feel you need a visual clue to link it with somewhere, for this piece it was the photos. What I have been thinking about recently and what could be interesting, is the sound recordings I have been making of my conversations with my Nan when going through old photos. These are really powerful, however I think you would again need that visual clue to give the sound a context in which the audience can place the words in.
As for the other pieces, I discussed the different formats with my tutor Jane Frederick and I realised then that by far I still preferred the larger photographs with the writing underneath, simplicity in this case worked better. I think I was making it too complicated. It was agreed that I should hang these in the space anyway. I still wished to use the smaller cards I had written with the postcard sized photographs, not only to experiment but I also felt that for me that was such a large part of the work, taking it out of the exhibition space and making a comment on the work being currently displayed in Firstsite. I also knew this was a great opportunity for feedback. I placed the small cards in Firstsite leaflets and next to the other postcards they sold. This was done without their knowledge. This sort of work for me I find interesting because it is not necessarily public, it is not known about, it is something that you stumble across. That was a much more personal part of the exhibition, although it wasn’t openly acknowledged I did not feel that the work was complete until I had tried this out. I am yet to receive any feedback from the cards.
For me the work was successful, the fact that it was possible to make those links with the images and the Firstsite space and as a result the exhibition strengthened the work. I received good feedback on the larger photographs that I put in the exhibition space. It contrasted with the rest of the large colourful work that was in the room which I think worked well. I did not feel completely comfortable exhibiting work in that space, I find the space very imposing and rather unfriendly and I felt that that played on my mind throughout the day. Also, considering that it was only for the day you feel a lot less precious about the work than you would about work that was staying up for longer, although it is such a well-known space I much preferred making work for and curating the Waiting Room space the week before, I felt much more comfortable working and exhibiting there.
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