So in our tutor groups we were given the task of setting up an off site exhibition. We split ourselves up into smaller groups according to what we wanted our exhibition space like. Some people wanted a typical white cube gallery space, some to work with something not so typical and some wanted an outside space. I went into the group of wanting a not so typical gallery space. We came together and discussed various places we could have the exhibition and who would contact these places.
One place we decided to have a look at was Cable night club under london bridge. It was a great venue that would have been a great challenge to put an exhibition together in and we managed to get about 15 + people that were interested in showing there. Initially we were told we would have to pay a certain amount for the hire which was doable as we had a big group and that we would need to manage to get a certain bar tab on the night. However these fees increased as time went on and it became too much of a financial risk for people so we had to abandon that idea.
This was our original poster we made for the exhibition at cable.
We then had little time to arrange a new venue. My friend Jo had worked at a bar called Grand Union Kennington and now worked at the Camden branch and she suggested asking if we could have an exhibition in their upstairs space. They said yes and we managed to get the space for free to have it for one day/evening. It was a lot smaller space than Cable and we thought it was less ambitious but we didn't have time to sort anywhere else. Due to the smaller space we could only have about 5ish people showing in the spaceto give each other enough room. It ended it being me, Joanna Penso, Simone Barnes and Bethany Travis. This worked out to be a nice size group actually and we worked well together as a group.
We decided to curate the show together and when we went to visit it seemed pretty easy to decided where each of our works were to go and decided if that didn't work on the day we set the exhibition up we would just try out a new way.
The upstairs inside part of the bar where we had our exhibition. The doors to the left led our the the outside tent area.
The bar Grand Union where we had our exhibition in the upstairs bit.
Poster for exhibition
We came up with the name Off sight exhibition just to play on the task we had been given to have an off site exhibition. Simone designed the posters and came up with a few of options and we went with the one above.
poster option
poster option
On the day of the exhibition we had from 12 o'clock till 5 o'clock to set up the exhibition. We had to remove all the paintings off the wall and and move all the furniture and tables and chairs out apart from the ones we wanted. It was a real push to finish in time for 5 for our crit especially for Jo who had a lot of construction to do.
rough floor plan of our exhibition
My video installation
drawing of my installation due to poor picture
This is a video of my work it doesn't quite show how impacting the flashing of the work and the dominance it had in the space. I had to make sure I put a warning about flashing lights on the door of the exhibition.
Beth's work of a video of alive sperm in semen.
Video of Beth's work showing alive sperm in semen and dead sperm in semen growing bacteria.
This is one of three of Simone's drawings. Her three drawings document her standing on shoes that she had attached stilts onto the bottom so they were really tall and hard to balance on. She also showed the shoes she had made for this exhibition. This photo doesn't show them very well as I didn't have a flash on my camera and I should have brought a proper camera to document the exhibition better.
These are videos of Jo's work she made a corridor from wood and black fabric and set up a motion sensor light behind two fish bowls full of water, so when a person when through the light turned on and created a rippling effect on the opposite fabric 'wall'.
At 5 o' clock we had our tutor group and tutor come to look round our exhibition and have a crit. I always struggle with our crits as our group isn't the most talkative and it's sometimes really hard to get people to talk and make any sort of comment and its generally the same people that only talk which includes me and Jo. However we got some good feedback and discussed each of our works and how they worked in the space and how we set up the exhibition. They commented on how:
the amount of works in the space works well as they all have enough breathing space so they are not competing for attention and that it seems well balanced.
My piece is what impacts you first when you enter the room as its what hits you when you walk in if the main video bit is playing. It sets the tone for the rest of the exhibition as it was generally what people encountered first.
the whole exhibition makes you aware of your body and references your physicality (which is something we hadn't realised before) due to the use of eating disorders in my piece and the food on offer to eat whilst watching the videos, Simone's work relating to physical movement of her body trying to balance on the shoes, Beth's semen which is a bodily fluid, and Jo's work that responds to your bodies presence.
the exhibition has some sort of extreme distorted element to it which echos the potential over indulgence, hedonism, alcoholicness of the bar and added to the unsettling effect of some of the works.
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