Reflecting on Exhibitions Past and Present (Week 1)

As I begin my Final Major Project module my thoughts are turning to how I might present my work to the public at the end of the course.  At the same time I am preparing to travel up to Skye to host a small exhibition at Gallery An Talla Dearg, alongside artist Julia Christie.

I have one wall of the Exhibition space which is a purpose-built and quite large gallery in Eilean Iarmain.  Having done a recce of the space when I was last in Skye I determined that I could display ten framed images alongside twenty mounted images that will also be for sale.

I processed, mounted and framed my images a number of weeks ago.  I am a very organised person but this was many weeks before it was necessary to do this.  However, life intervened and my mother passed away so I was glad I had all my work ready for the trip north – a learning point that even if you are well prepared sometimes unforeseen circumstances can get in the way in the final weeks before exhibiting work.

In August 2018 I mounted an exhibition of my work in my own home in Tetbury, Gloucestershire as part of my coursework for Surfaces and Strategies https://wp.me/p9BvX0-aG.  

A very different venue to the one I will be exhibiting in on Skye but these were the learning points I identified after that experience:

• Don’t add dogs to the guest list!
• Plan for the worst in terms of the weather and lighting
• Exhibitions costs a lot of money to mount
• Exhibitions held in your home are intimate, informal and fun and allow people to view your work without the commercial pressure of a gallery function
• I have suggested to some local friends that we think about an Arts Festival perhaps located in the street where I live. A number of my neighbours have artistic tendencies
• Paper surfaces are as important as the images themselves in presenting work – I am still searching for the perfect paper
• Music is important in creating the mood
• It is useful to have a number of helping hands with particular tasks on the night
• I added some colour images to see if guests had any preference for those.  I do not think I would normally mix colour and black and white as it confuses the narrative but the feedback was helpful.

I also produced a video of my Exhibition featuring feedback from my visitors https://wp.me/p9BvX0-f4.

In addition, I currently have another Exhibition of my work in Poppies Hotel in Callander, Scotland:

As I move through the first part of my Final Major Project I plan to undertake a number of pop-up Exhibitions not only to gain some practical experience, but also to use them as a means of testing the market with the images I am producing for my final portfolio.  I will use venues such as local cafes, bed and breakfast venues and other small and appropriate outlets.

Following on from Informing Contexts, where I experimented with different techniques and subjects, I intend to continue to produce large amounts of images working in different lights, with artificial light sources, in different locations, using different techniques and working in colour for the the first time in my MA Photography, to present the essence of the Isle of Skye through my imagery.