Solo Exhibition 'Reimagine' - Preparation, setting-up, and finished work

Preparation for solo exhibition 

Putting up exhibition 

Reflection

Planning for this exhibition has been on my mind for months now, curation is something I am new to considering within my practice, however it has turned out to be something that I really enjoy. From the drawings I made initially I then developed final plans which I then left a whole week to put into action. The most gruelling part of the preparation side was making all these shelves that I needed to display my objects. Once I had marked with masking tape on the walls what size I wanted them to be they were cut and set aside for me to paint and fix the brackets on to. I found this task quite relaxing as it reflected the physicality of what up until now had been my conceptual ideas. When coming to erect all the shelving however the story changed, as putting up the amount of shelving I needed turned out to be a long and arduous process. I managed to get someone to come in and help me as putting up a whole two roomed exhibition single-handedly was becoming an incredibly slow process. With help on the way, I could get back to project managing which is a skill I feel is more useful for my portfolio in the real world. As I walked around the space, (now shelf ready) I started to interchange the placement of objects in my mind, carrying out a few physical exchanges until I was content with the way the objects were conversing. I included within this exhibition, a few of my time capsule works interspersed with some salt crystal sculptures, an array of shelves at mixed heights with a mixture of narrative provoking objects from different time periods that can be paired together like the children's game picture pairs to create poetical and metaphorical interpretations. A tank with time captures buried within it which acts as a cross cut of the land some of them have been buried in, as well creating a interesting object in itself. A couple of film works, two of which showing the burial performance of my time captures, the other one a mile walk in someone else's shoes which I have displayed to echo the tableau I set up across the other side of the room which echos some of the narratives within the time capsules. The whole room reads as many strands from narrative and feels conclusive yet provoking. Within the second corridor I have assembled two lines of prints that start off with intensity of colour and form, and gradually fade down until they virtually disappear. This echos the ghostly appearance of the images, there nature to appear and the fade into the back of our minds like a memory this concept has extremely poignant connotations, that act like an antidote for the business of the objects in the other room. What I have learnt about this experience overall, is that even with a great amount of planning little issues crop up and you need to think on your feet and be able to problem solve in order to overcome these difficulties. I feel like I have had to do that within this show, however I have become more resourceful as a result. I will keep considering the pros and cons to this exhibition and will create a battle plan for next time.