Work Experience- ‘Redrawing The Line’- Exhibition curation

Last year I submitted an entry for the ‘Redrawing the Line’ risograph publication, which was a response to an illustrated publication about women’s rights and equality in Indian. As part of this publication which was printed into a book, the art work alongside some work from the Indian publication was to be exhibited at the University of Gloucestershire in the Quad Walk Gallery. As part of a small team it was our job to curate and hang this exhibition.

The entrance and introduction to the exhibition.

I didn’t have any experience curating or hanging up/displaying artwork, so I thought that this would but a great learning experience, especially if I decide to work in a museum or as a art curator. These skills I have learnt will be beneficial in the near future when in the 3^rd year I have to plan my exhibition space for the end of year degree show. When we arrived at the gallery where the work was being exhibited the work had already been framed, and separated into the work from the university students and the work from the Indian publication. It was our first job to design the space and to try and include as much work as possible, whilst still looking professional, and to place the work in a relevant order. There wasn’t a strict colour scheme for this exhibition meaning that even though the technique of risograph printing does restrict artists to only using 2 colours of limited value and tone, the colours of the prints were totally random, meaning that we had the careful place the artwork so that the colours didn’t clash too much. 

Arranging the frames ready for hanging.

The space for the exhibition was a very long narrow corridor, which was separated into sections by doors, this meant that we could organise the work using the doors as divisions, making the overall appearance a little less chaotic. We had a lot of artwork, and we measured how many frames we could possible fit in the space, without it looking at crowded, but there wasn’t going to be enough room for all the the frames, meaning we would have to be a little critical in our decision making. We continued to swap artworks around and removing and adding others, and we finallly came to a finalised set of images. We had to be critical we curating the exhibition we had to look at the quality of the image, how the colours worked within the collection, and whether the actually images worked well with the others. I think we came up with the best collection we could, and because there was a good number of images that couldn’t be included, it was decided that frames would be swapped over half way through the exhibition in order for everyone’s work to be exhibited.
 

The long narrow space we were working with.

Our next job was to hang all of the frames. Our tutor, Jen demonstrated how we should hang the frames on the picture rail, and demonstrating how we should align the frames that they all hung down to the same point. Once we had experimented with the first frame, and was happy with the the height of it, we then used this an a template to hang the other. However, we found that some of the frames were different sizes, meaning that when they were hung, they hung at different heights to the others, meaning that it did look a little off, but decided that if the frames were level at the top then it would look adequate. This process took longer than expected it took 2 of use to hang the frame each time. 

Myself hanging a frame.

As we got to the end of the exhibition we had run out the the adjustable hanging cables we were using so we had to resort to another method. This involved a very hand on job of using an electric drill to screw in another form of hanger, something I had never done before. This took us quite a long time to complete, but eventually we hung to pictures up successfully. The final stage was to tuck the hanging cables behind the frames so they were not visible, and to stand back to admire our work.

The equipment we were using because we had run out of the adjustable cables. 

During this experience I have learnt how to be selective when curating an exhibition to consider numerous options, and be strict with my decision making in order to create the best possible exhibition. I have learnt how to work out spacing to present to work asbest as possible, to make it look professional pleasing, whilst still trying to make the most of the space, and I have learnt a couple of different ways of hanging frames work onto picture rails, which will be useful for when I create my our display of my work for the 3^rd year degree show.  

The finished exhibition.

This was a very interesting and insightful experience, we were trusted in using our initiative and design skills to display an exhibition which the public will see. I feel that I have gained a lot of new skills which will carry me through into future projects, and it was therefore a very valid and positive experience. I think this experience will help to plan my own exhibition space next year at the degree show, as it has given me an insight to how artwork should be spaced and multiple ways of hanging framed artwork. 

To conclude this experience has been extremely valuable, I have learnt many different practical skills, which will hopefully translate into the future, and I can now say that I have experience curating a professional organised exhibition, which has been seen by the public, with my work in it. 

Another addition, there was going to be an opening night to this exhibition, although I wasn’t able to attend the evening, sadly, I still wanted to contribute. Therefore, we were asked to get involved in the organisation of the entertainment for the evening. We were asked to buy the food and drink for the evening, in a budget of £20. Although only a small task, this experience showed that we could be relied upon to help organise and gather supplies for an event.