Exhibition update. The joy's of it all.

I've been falling behind somewhat in keeping this blog updated with the exhibition details, so I'll throw it all up now. Currently what the group have been working on is a poster to advertise the exhibition, we had a meeting this morning to discuss and exchange everyones ideas for the poster. After a multitude of faffing and pootling weve ultimately decided to call the exhibition 'Self-reflection', simple and to the point, it perfectly explains what the exhibit is about without a lot of excess arty language. 

We've been having a few little problems keeping sustained contact with Jess from the SU, them not replying to emails and such but as far as we are all aware the exhibition is going fourth at full steam. 

We also need to start thinking about catering, the most important part of an exhibition opening of course. Jess said something about being able to provide food and drink, there is a bar downstairs and the building is fully licensed so artistic booze hounds are more then welcome to wander around our artistic alley.

Also as part of our advertising we are going to set up some form of event via facebook, if we invite several billion people we might just scrape double figures on opening night.

The bare foot assessment.

I had my assessment last week so I thought I should write up a bit about how that went. I presented without my shoes on in an attempt to calm myself down, I thought it might relax me, shoes being quite formal. It didn't, I was still a nervous wreck. But on the whole I believe it was mostly positive, I talked a little bit about how I planned to deploy my work and how different circumstances could affect the overall reception of the piece. I decided to show the 'till roll' that Id been writing on, I placed it on a windowsill and let the falling words drop and gather in a pile on the floor. I wanted to display it on some form of bar to allow some interaction with the piece, putting it on a bar would actively allow the viewer to spin the roll and let the words pile up on the floor. I bought a toilet roll dispenser from wilkinsons but upon opening it realised that it's application onto a wall required drilling and wall plugs and what not. I am a woman of simple diy skills so I ultimately decided to scrap that idea. Miguell suggested that I give the piece a little extra something, he wanted me to, for example, leave a line exposed for the audience to read, or change colour. Just changing something a little to keep the audience engaged with the piece. The idea of leaving a line exposed got me thinking about the thought behind it, would I actively have to decide and select which particular thought I left exposed, although i'd like to believe I could leave any random thought revealed, I can't help but feel there would be some subliminal influence as to which one I would let the audience read.

Alot of the feedback I recieved from tutors and fellow students was about how I would display the piece, as in, where and different ways I could deploy with room for spinning merrily. Someone actually threw the idea out of actually putting it in the toilet, to see whether anyone used it. Then someone talked about turning it into a perfomance, I.e. writing during the exhibition, I do like this idea but the socialable side of me wants to be fleeting around the space talking to others rather then being on the outside looking in. The SU group are in the process of arranging another meeting with Jess to have a second look around the place and hopefully get a better grasp on where and how we all wish to display our gorgeous work. The group is ever expanding, we must be on about twelve members now.

I'm actually quite pleased with the way everyones work seems to have channelled, there is going to be a varied collection of work for the exhibition but mostly all encompassing the theme of 'self awareness' which is a bonus.

Stealing john moores heat.

I didn't have alot on today so I thought I'd head into uni and crack on with some work, I grappled with my new concept of writing on till roll. Using my valuable contacts in the co-operative food industry, they have supplied me with ample 'till roll' to use as I see fit. 

I wanted to experiment with it and combine my idea of writing on it. I find it such an interesting little object to write on, there's something appealing about the texture of the paper, it's so thin and smooth. The way its in roll form...I can unwind it to write on and roll it back up. 

Although it does resemble a toilet roll. Reference to waste I suppose. I have a massive urge to put it on a toilet roll dispenser/holder thing. Maybe I will. I haven't decided yet.

Today I also decided to finally see to the ball of wool, my curiosity got the better of me and I unrolled it. It took the best part of an afternoon to access the leaves within...or at least what was left of it. The lack of oxygen had basically dried it out and it was merely a crispy green spear. The photographs are in an earlier post...

The wool's demise.

Before the unwrapping commenced.

Me and louise attempting to unroll the beast.

Let the destruction commence.

4.5 months later, the letuce emerges...a bit crispy.

Nam June Paik.

Today I went to see the Nam June Paik exhibition at FACT with an old friend. We'd been to costa to gorge on overpriced butties and fancy flavoured coffee, after a full belly of carbs and gossip, I convinced her to wander over to the FACT with me to see this exhibition. We walked in and the room was empty bar the artwork. This huge tent like formation centred in the pitch black room. It was festooned in colourful, laser-esque lights. Flashing obnoxiously really, shaping shape and moving rapidly. We approached the tent and our feet stumbled over a mat that was placed underneath the tent, I sort of glanced around to see if anyone was around and shouted 'can we go under this?' Much to my delight we could.

So me and my friend sat under the tent, then we lay down and watched the show. We talked about old times, and affairs. We must of been under there for about thirty minutes watching the dancing lines whilst discussing the impact of infidelity on families. There was something about strange about lying down in town, in a public space yet I felt so comfortable and relaxed. It felt peaceful, the warm room and the comfort of an old friend lying next to me. It felt secure, there was something about lying in a pseudo room being covered by this cone of cloth that made me feel safe.

It was a simple pleasure, being stimulated by pretty colours. It reminded me of being a child and seeing christmas lights in the city centre at night, the thrill of being out at night in a busy place, overhead a parade of glorious, naiive, and crude neon lights decorating the sky.  

When I finally decided to crawl out of the tent, after bumping into the the side of it a couple of times we left. I left feeling happy and relaxed. As my general mood some of the time is a mixutre of anixety/anger I felt a big release. I felt like the anger had drained from me. To be fair, I think it had a lot to do with lying down, and It made me think how my relationship with this piece would've changed had the oppourtunity to lie down wasn't given. I believe it would've have, I believe I wouldn't of enjoyed this as much as I did had I not experienced it lying down. This might make me sound super lazy but I could really get used to viewing art from the floor.

Bloody wolstenholme.

As for an update Wolstenholme wise, after much prodding and what not they got back in touch and offered us some dates to show our work, these dates were unfortunately unsuitable for us as a large proportion of our group will be in Berlin at this time.

Our second option is to exhibit in the LSU, they seem to be pretty keen on getting us involved with the empty rooms they have so it looks like that's were we are headed for this end of year exhibition.

We are going to visit the space at 11.00 on Tuesday, I'm kinda worried that the place might be festooned in carpets and thus not appropriate for me to write on it. But we'll see.

Group Crit.

I had a group crit session yesturday morning, It wasn't a great turnout number wise but this ended up being a positive thing, because we each had longer to talk about and discuss our work and any issues we were having.

The session was pretty useful, it really got me thinking about the exhibiting of my work. We talked alot about how the deployment of artwork can ultimately affect the relationship between the audience and the piece. There were alot of interesting and exciting ideas exchanged between the group, lot's to think about and dwell on in the run up to the upcoming exhibition. 

I talked a little bit about how I wanted to use the floor as the medium to write on, my concept being deployed on the floor seems apt, our relationship with the floors is different to say walls or ceilings. Generally if something is on the floor, it's sometimes seen as waste, it's something literally and metaphorically 'below' us. If my thought's were on the floor people could walk all over them, brush them away but also see them as a form of waste. Waste of thought. Waste of brain acitvity. Which is what my delerious ponderings are, a waste. 

We talked about how much of a difference it makes where my writing would be placed, how would it change the feel of it if it were on the wall? At eye level? What if i'd decided to frame it? Or what if I wanted to write on the ceiling? All these things are taken into consideration when Im thinking about how I want the audience to recieve this visual information.