The first thing me and curator team did together was make an online document where we wrote down all our ideas (at the present moment) and what we think we need in terms of space:
We then did a little brain storm of initial ideas for the space and how we could link all the work together somehow. I came up with a colour gradient idea as we discussed it and all our ideas seem to be run in a gradient from black and white to colourful. And then a maze idea came up where we would continue with the colour gradient but make it into a maze where people would walk through. Amy drew some diagrams:
That seemed to be the plan until we got given our space:
We are team 5, we have our space divided between two rooms. The first thing we did was meet at Locksbrook to look at the space. After meeting up we came to a lot of conclusions:
We actually had a lot of space and quite useful space as the majority of it is walls which is what we need.
We could still use the maze idea but adapt it slightly so the path leads people through the rooms
We have a clear start on mapping out where people would go in the rooms.
With the mapping out of the rooms we started with the people who were present at the time- that was the easy part. The harder part of placing people was placing the people in spaces who we had no idea what they were doing- or we had some idea but no specifics.
We just estimated at put it in the instagram group chat we have to see what people think.
Everyone was pretty much happy with their given spaces.
Since I was head digital curator (and somehow became overall head curator) I began making a skeleton for the digital exhibition. This was my idea:
I wanted to include the physical in the digital as some of the images are predominately meant to be seen in the physical. I then also wanted people to have their own personal space so they don't feel like their work is being compared- which is not what we want to do!
I began playing around on Jonathon's wix and started to put my idea onto the computer. I chose blue as we wanted blue to be the thing that brings all the images together as most if not all of the works have a item of blue in/on them.
I made buttons with peoples names on them so it is clear where the link will take you- however I might change it so it's peoples full name not just last name.
Here is what the individual pages look like- the theme of blue runs through all of the pages.
Once I sorted out all of the buttons I began playing with the design of the landing page. Here mis the outcome for that:
I still think there is something missing on this landing page but this is just the first draft and I want to get other peoples opinions on it first.
Back to the physical:
We bought this blue tape as we wanted to explore the blue link in our images. We went for a
darker shade of blue as generally it would be able to match with most shades of blue.
We thought that having a continuous line going through the whole of our exhibition- not only does it connect all the works together but it will also guide the viewers through the spaces easily, as our space could be difficult to navigate as it is spread through three different rooms.
Above is us testing out the line- as you can see it's a bit wonky but we found that it was easily removed and could quickly be fixed. We only did did the corridor as we were going to wait for the walls to be painted and for the temporary walls to be put in and arranged correctly.
This day we also tested out some lights- the portable led lights from siso. We struggled at first as we wasn't sure what needed to go where but we figured it out eventually. I only booked them out for a day just to see if they would work in our space. There were four lights and stands all together which is perfect as it is just the corridor that needs lighting up. This is because the only source of light is the skylight window so if it cloudy on the day then there will hardly be any light so the spotlights will help a lot.
What to name the team?
In a group discussion we began to collect some ideas for the name of the group. We decided it would be fitting to base the name around the colour blue.
In the end we decided on "Blue Vein" as it correlates with the continuous line going through our exhibition- the line is the vein and it supplies art.
Monday 24th- we had a group discussion with Kat about our virtual exhibition.
First we had to show what we had done- I had asked for people to put their work up for then but the majority didn’t, which was a bit disappointing but it was okay.
I had updated the website landing page a little. Here is what I presented:
There were a few suggestions on what we need to do before the hand in on thursday:
- Add artist statements to individual pages
- Add full names/ specialisms
- Add some sort of thumbnail to buttons- so it will be easy to know who is who
- Add social media
- Make sure it works on mobile
- Add something to the footer to make it easier to navigate
So that is what I did- I began to make adjustments to the page. It was quite difficult as I was the only one working on the website at the time- and it didn't always save what I did which was very frustrating.
I noticed that not many people had put up their work on their pages within the time we had agreed on so I decided to make a checklist for them so they know what they need to put up.
Hopefully it is helpful!
On Tuesday 25th we went into locksbrook and began painting the walls and preparing the space for wednesday which is hopefully the day we will begin installing the works.
It was a messy job! got paint all over my jeans but it was worth it. After this we can officially start to put up our work.
Later on, I logged in onto Jonathans wix and began to make some edits. I finalised my page and thought that I would share it as inspiration for some people- as some people still hadn’t put up their work:
I also added a footer which can be seen above! This means that it will be easier to get around the website. The only thing left that I need to do is edit the landing page slightly so it is usable on mobile devices as right now it is a bit all over the place.
Wednesday 26th
In Locksbrook all day today- installing my work. First I did some trial and error with the layout again. I wasn't completely satisfied with the results I had had from last time. Here are some of the examples:
The first one is the layout I decided on before but after looking at it again I wasn't completely sure it was portraying what I wanted them to portray. The other two are are ideas I have tried but I still wasn’t 100% sure if any of them worked for me. I was leaning towards the last one. This might be because of its uniqueness as the others are kind of generic.
I emailed Hugh and Seamus to get their opinions but I also had a chat with Jonathan on Locksbrook.
We found that my work could be seen from all the way at the other end of the rooms:
This is quite important as not all of my work can be seen so what was seen would have to be enticing and draw people in. Me, Jonathan and Claire had a chat about this and we decided that one of the A3 images so it would be more visible than the A4 one.
So with the layout that was the strongest above we switched all the images around so the A4 "Ellie" portrait would be on the other side, here is the before and after:
I then began to prepare the wall for the images. Jonathan told me about about the standard hanging height for images which is roughly between 60" and 63". I decided to find the middle of this- for example, the top of the bottom row is at 61" and bottom of the top row is 62". This makes the gap in the middle of the images at eye level which should in theory guide peoples eyes across the images. I also make the images an inch apart from each other so they don't all merge together.
I then went and helped everyone with their work before I remembered that I needed to find something to display my notebook on!
The only idea I had was one to the wooden tables, here is what it looked like:
I looked a bit clunky. The paint stains on there is also not very attractive. There is also the fact of the size of the book in contrast of the table is ridiculous!
I spoke to Jonathan and he had just the right solution. Luckily, there was a table which someone had made but decided not to use it (Thank God!). It was also the perfect height and size. Some may call it fate!
I was very happy on how this turned out! There was just two more things left to do. Lights and tape!
First tape- we decided to use blue tape which can imitate a vein, we were told that we couldn't do it on the floor like we planned so we adapted and put it on the wall- weaving up and around peoples work. Here's what it looks like around my work and I did a little short film on the corridor:
Lastly, Lights!
We had planned the lights before, so setting them up was easy and quick. Me, Ella and Amy did this and we adjusted all the light settings to what works best with the work. I marked all the spaces for the lights with tape and make a "dummies guide" for Jonathan fo him to be able to put them up!
Later on this day I went on the digital exhibition and made some last minute changes. I made the buttons have a hover picture so when you hover over the button an image from the artist/designer would appear as a little icon. I also made sure that it was okay in mobile format which it was! This however was very difficult as wix kept crashing, this could be because there was a lot of people on there at one time but I had waited till it was quite late in the night so not many people would be on there to do it.
Overall the experience of working the curatorial teams have been exciting and a great new experience. There were some very frustrating parts of this exercise but that is understandable as not everyone would want to participate or do their part. But I would definitely want to do this or something similar again as it has given me a new perspective on galleries/ exhibitions and the work that goes with it.