Art and Exhibition

An exhibition is a manifesto for a show causing creativity.
An exhibition is like a church, its a places of praise, silence and worship.
The white cube space, is the space in which the art work goes in to. I think that the fact that it is white and plain helps to build a relationship between the viewer and the artwork. I find that the plainer the room the more it helps to focus on one piece of art instead of getting distracted by other things in the room that aren't part of the exhibition. The White Cube is a Gallery is which is located in London and Hong Kong and displays work of art in the white cube space only. I find that the white cube spaces gives a really contemporary and modern feel to the gallery space. However I don't particularly like the white cube idea and I find it looks really clinical and uninviting. Though it looks professional, I find that it depends on the work you put in it to whether the space looks good or not. Looking at art in the white cube space is different to looking at it in the real world, it gives you a different perspective as in the real world there are distractions (people, phones, movement) where as in the white cube its a controlled quiet environment. These different perspective is what helps build your relationship to the art and your views on it.
Some artists have 'disrupted' the white wall image by doing their art on the walls instead of placing their art on the walls. Which gives it a unique feel and puts the plain white walls to use, in a unconventional way. Artists such as William Andstasi 'West Wall' 1967, Mel Bochner 'Measurements' 1969), Yves Klein 'The void' 1958, Ei Lissitzky 'Prounenraum' 1923.

The salon hang was used in the late 1700's to exhibit art. large paintings were o hang at the top and small at the bottom, this allowed perfect view to see all the paintings. All of the paintings are boarders with thick gold frames which gives them a really elegant and nostalgic feel to them. However due to trying to places so much art in on room all of the paintings are compacted together making the exhibition wall look almost like wall paper in stead of individual paintings. Does the frames de value the paintings? I think individually, no. but as a whole I feel as though the frames are a big bulk of the wall connecting the paintings and making the wall look more full than it needs to be, making the painting look less significant next to every other one on the wall.

In 1863 Salon Des refuse ( Exhibition of rejects). This is an exhibition made up of all the artists that didn't make it into the salon hang. Created by Gustave Courbet, to help artists put their work on display who were refused by the hang, I think it is a really clever and personal idea, as it gave artists a chance to present their work in a exhibition.  Eduard Monet was also rejected by the Salon, and soon joined Courbet in the Salon Des Refuse. Monet soon got rid of the frames bordering the paintings and just placed his canvas on the wall so that the canvas became part of the wall. Instead of creating the illusion of depth he just created a large panoramic canvas on the wall. This makes the wall look less crowded and gives the paintings more value as they are allowed to stand alone and be the focus of the view.

'A Duck for Mr Darwin': which was an exhibition based on the memory of Darwin and was centred around the idea of evolutionary thinking and the struggle to exist. I found this exhibition quite fascinating when I heard about it because think that it is important to remember people who helped change lives and the way that we look at life and Darwin defiantly changed the way I look at life as I am a huge believer in evolution. The exhibition its self looks really interesting as it is all laid out with the theme of travel and while the pieces are really fascinating to look at they are not too in your face and overwhelming which sometimes can be a bad thing. I think it has enough subtlety to be great. I think that the idea is really great as it has enough interactive and interesting exhibits to be great with out being to over crowded and in your face.

'This is a Voice': This exhibition included Barbra Kruger who is a feminist contemporary artist and this exhibition appealed to me as I am a woman and what woman doesn't like the idea of other women sticking up for our gender. The exhibition itself is really interesting because it doesn't just contain visuals. It also contains sound as well as sciences such as biology. This is really interesting because it is straying away from the traditional exhibition protocol by doing a lot more than hanging up some images which is really fascinating.
Another exhibition which is a lot like 'This is a voice' is an exhibition called 'WACK' which is an art and feminist revolution, 2007. This exhibition is made up of all female artists, using art in different ways, shapes and forms to create art for the feminist movement. I think that a lot of work in this exhibition is really powerful, which I think it needed to be as it is fighting for a powerful cause and needs to demonstrate this to get the message across.

I really like the idea of visiting a 'BANK' exhibition which is a company that take there exhibition spaces to a whole new level by having 'zombie golf' 'stray light craven' and 'cocaine orgasm' which all sound really interesting and funky and make you want to see them. I like the idea of thinking out side the box and making the exhibition space almost interactive as it gives views something to talk about as it is unique and creative. I think by having cool and funky exhibitions will make people more intrigued and want to go more than they would a standard gallery. As it is more wayward thinking and helps to keep people interested in visiting galleries.
I have found that the Ikon gallery really uses the white cube space to present their work. they make great use of the walls but also the floor as there is always sculptures and instillations on the floor as well as works on the walls. I find the gallery to be bright and inviting but also really interesting as they hold different interactive exhibitions to keep you entertained. The space they do have is really large and spacious which allows a lot of foot room for viewers to walk, but the work is exhibited in such a way that there is a piece f work in your line of sight at all times which is great as this was the audience will not lose interesting trying to find work,

The Birmingham museum and gallery its a really big spacious space. I find that it is really big and sometimes really complicated to find your way around if you want to see everything. However they do use the space really well, containing both paintings, furniture sculptures and more. it has a huge range of work from different genres and eras and is really interesting. the use of decoration in the space is relevant to the art and its era, this makes it more interesting and makes you more intrigued whilst being aesthetically pleased. /just like the Ikon this space is great as there is a piece of work in your eye sight at all time and I find this to be really important as you don't want to be looking for art in a gallery you want to be able to follow it round and never lose interest. 'The Night at the Museum'  exhibition was really great, consisting of sculptures and paintings, I particularly liked it because of the layout of the exhibition. The works were cleverly placed so that the sculptures were facing/ looking at the paintings on the wall which I found was very creative in a subtle and minute way. I think it made the exhibition that bit more interesting and pleasing. I found that the way the sculptures were placed really intrigued me as its almost like art can look at art you don't have to be a member of the audience to look at the art work which I thought was a really great concept.

The Tate in Liverpool is really big and spacious. it is a large square room containing multiple different varieties of works. the spaces allows enough room for the works to be seen individually but not to crowded that you don't know where to focus your eyes. I really enjoyed the Tate Liverpool and I think the work was presented to its full potential and the spaces was used greatly. I think the works in the Tate weren't really relevant to each other as they were from all different genres and eras, however they all still blended nicely with the exhibition, it was easy to walk around in a smooth organized way while observing the works. I think this exhibition worked so well because of the works as there wasn't  apiece that absolutely stole the show away from the other pieces, they all worked together to create one great exhibition.

As a group we went round the level 2's art studios to get a feel of the work and see which ones we would like to use in our exhibition. There were lots of great pieces and ones that have very clear links together and you can see, but there were also some links that we came up with that were a lot more subtle and less dramatic, links such as Geometric shapes, and the mystic sides of some of the works, but we also found that a lot of the works had lots of the same colour scheme. We then started to brain storm as a group to come up with different exhibition titles and different ways to use the space.

I didn't really like the layout of my final exhibition at collage I found it to be very boxed in and cramped. We had four corners and each was for a specialized subject (art, textiles, graphics) art and design got two. and each corner box consisted for 4 smaller boxed contains 3 to 4 pieces of works. I found it to be very cramped and the work really close together in some areas. My area wasn't cramped as I only had to share my area with one person as we had big pieces however entering the space was really clustered and the exhibition as a whole was really cramped. However we placed the work so that when you did turn a corner the work was looking at you so that you didn't have to look around because it was right in front of you.

Intervention and interruption was one of our ideas. We had the idea of interrupting peoples view of the art work by obstructing their view by standing in front of them and having things in front of the work. I think  that it is a really good and creative idea as it allows a broad range of what we can do in the exhibition space with the lights and different objects, but also the art work as well. I have found that due to the broadness of the topic it allows room to come up with new ideas as a group but also everyone gets a say and their own ideas in putted.
Another one of our ideas was ' New things'. We liked the idea of everything we saw was new to us, as it will be to the audience seeing the exhibition for the first time. So we quite liked that idea but struggled when it came to turning it into an exhibition as we couldn't really come up with any idea of what we could do to keep the audience engaged in the exhibition without distracting them from the work as well.
We also came up with a title for our exhibition 'art interrupted'.
Our final idea was to use the lights to our advantage and control and interrupt the exhibition as it is happening. Because we only have so many lights we didn't want a lot of work as we didn't want to ruin the effect of a work being in the spotlight with a piece of on in the shadows. The idea is for a spot light to be on a piece of work in a completely dark room for 17 seconds. (17 seconds is the average time people look at a piece of art work for) and then after 17 seconds goes off and another lights up in a random order. This way we are controlling the exhibition by controlling the viewing time weather there stood there for less or more time and also interrupting them but completely shutting the piece down from their sight. I think it is a really simple but effective idea and if it work I think it should be great. Our theme is the interruption of the human life as we know it and the lack of control we have over it.
All of the art work we chose we decided all have the theme of life ad living to them. we have pregnant portraits and people, inflatable 'breathing' plastic and a nose chair. I think that this is relevant to the exhibition them as the works presented are about living and breathing but the exhibition is about interruption and its almost as though we are interrupting the living.
The advertisement idea that we had we couldn't do as we wanted to have holographic posers made to interrupt peoples view of seeing something straight, however the lenticular paper was £65 for an A6 sheet which was way out of our price zone. We then came up with the idea of illusions and black and white lines for out poster to interrupt the word ' art interrupted' which I think its a simple way that could look really effective when done.
Meeting with John we found come bit of our idea that we hadn't really thought about like the duration of the exhibition and how many showings we would have. Because we haven't got many pieces and there only showed for 17 seconds it wouldn't be a very long exhibition. We quite liked the idea of it lasting a few minutes but only having one showing this way it is exclusive and its be there or be square.
Today we went into the studio space and tested out the spot lights. we have decided that some of the lights od need there position altering as some are shining in the wrong direction, however we were really happy with the way it looked in the sequence that we have chosen. We have chosen to do the light sequence in a set random order this way we know the sequence but the viewers don't. I think what I particularly like about this, is the fact that you only have 17 seconds between each light and some of the works are on the opposite side of the room and takes the majority of this time to get their only leaving a few seconds to view the piece. When doing our own experimentation of walking round the exhibition space we found that 17 seconds is a really long time, but I think this is great as out theme is interruption as I think that this time is either not going to be long enough for people to look a the work and have their sight cut off from it or its going to be too long and there going to be stood there with out a choice until the next work lights up. I think the fact that we are controlling the people is what makes this exhibition so interrupted.
apon further experimentation we also found that our exhibition would only be 2 minutes and 26 seconds long, so we thought about putting an interval between each illumination time, however we decided against it as it could be a safety risk to have people stood in the dark for a limited amount of time. I think by having such a short exhibition it helps to prove our point that we are in control and that you come for 2 and a half minutes and then leave you don't have a choice because we aren't turning the lights back on, I think also because it is only one viewing helps to prove this point as well.
Talking to /Jessica one of our chosen artists we had to see if her piece would actually work in our exhibition. Jessica's piece is a sheet of plastic inflated using the air we breathe held down under a metal bracket on the floor and stays inflated due to the currents in the buildings heating and air. However when Jessica did this she was on the first floor which is a floor higher than our studio and we weren't sure if it would inflate, however it did inflate and it looks really great and we are happy to have it in our exhibition.
for our advertisement we decided to do a Facebook page, poster, flyer and a gif.
Our original poster was that of a spot light shining on the title illuminating it just like the actual exhibition. However the final poster deign was the same concept but with an image of a chair in the actual exhibition space being illuminated. I think it looks really effective as it is simple but grabs your attention as there is only one main point of focus. We kept the details minimum on the poster, containing just date time and space, we added a bit of humour by putting the start and end time which is only 2 and a half minutes a part, its a small detail that people might not notice which is what makes its funny.
We used the same image as the poster to make the GIF and help to design the Facebook page.
This is the image that we used for the poster as well as to make the final GIF. (the GIF below is the final GIF). The original GIF is the same as the final exept it moved a lot faster than the final one which is what we didn't want as we wanted you to be able to see the image being shown.

https://www.facebook.com/events/283466285406320/ -  Facebook page
We chose not to include drinks and snacks in our exhibition as we figured if were not giving people the luxury of seeing the pieces, why give them the luxury of having a drink. I like the fact that its our terms and our only. The show would start at exactly 17:21 until 17:23 We chose this time as this is the time the sunsets according to the weather so we thought it would be quirky to use the weather out side to create darkness as well as the one inside.
Today I think our exhibition went well. we came in early to set up the chosen works, however the day before, one of our artists Vincent Stokes wasn't comfortable giving our chosen piece to exhibit as it wasn't complete so we had to chose some more of his work. We hung the work I a variation of styles using screws for the MDF board to sit on, nails for the canvas sheets and screws and bull dog clips for Vincent's screen prints. Luke then came in the adjust the spot lights for us so that we had one individual spot light on each work so that t looked effective and cherished. We found that two spot lights illuminated the room too much and you could see the unilluminated works as well so we stuck with one.
We stuck the artist statements t the door so that people outside could read them before entering and we also stuck up black card on the door windows to black out the room so it was impossible for people to see into it and for light to get in.
I think our exhibition went well and that people were quite shocked when the door opened for people to leave two and a half minutes later which was really interesting, However I don't think that people really got the concept of walking to the spot lights as everybody just congregated in the middle and barley moved making 17 seconds seem like a really long time apposed to the sudden abruptness of a sot light changing.
In conclusion I am really happy with the way the exhibition turned out and I really think that our work and group meetings really paid off. I found that I really liked the idea of having a really minimalistic show with a minimalistic time slot, I think its catchy with a bit of humour in it as well as something a little bit different and strays away from your classical tradition exhibitions. However if I was to do it again I would have made sure to make it clear that you are to work towards the works in order to feel the full effect, I would also have liked a little bit of background music on as I found that the atmosphere was quite awkward and could have done with a little livening up, plus I feel like it would have added into the humour side of the concept but having a dark room with music playing, could have been quite effective. Also I think that we should have had a real timer and not someone counting as I feel some of the intervals were a little bit sorter than some others. However I am pleased with the final outcome and I am sure our documentation video will prove this.
Thank you to Vincent Stokes, Beth Semple, Jess Parr, Rebecca Kent and Rosie Deluxe for letting us use their work.
Bibliography.
https://caro-interiors.com/2011/06/08/salon-style/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/russia/topics/media
http://blog.ashanging.com/2013/04/how-to-create-salon-style-art-wall/
http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/park_seo-bo_masons_yard_2016/
http://socks-studio.com/2014/10/08/mel-bochners-measurements-1968-69/
http://www.salondesrefuses.net/Table%20of%20Contents/Table%20of%20Contents%202.htm
http://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/exhibitions/a-duck-for-mr-Darwin
https://wellcomecollection.org/thisisavoice
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/this-is-a-voice-plaid-and-europa-on-designing-the-wellcome-collections-latest-exhibition/
http://weadartists.org/artist/majiskij