First show in the triangle space at Chelsea.

Before we ended for Christmas last year we had an exhibition. The year was split into two groups week 1 and 2. I was in week 2. Week 1s show was good however I felt like bits of it were still not working when it came to to the private view, I might be biased here.
The week was worked out like this; Monday- Curation day, Tuesday- Final Curation day. 5.30pm Opening night and private view. Wednesday- open to public, Thursday- 2nd years critique work. Friday- show to be taken down, all works removed.
I really valued the experience, the curation in particular was interesting for me (having not done any before), not only did it mean that you were made to interact with people you perhaps didn't know, but you learnt about them and their work, we ended up doing a mini sort of crit basically we all had to do a hello my name is, this is my work, this is what it's about, this is how I would like it shown, which I think was worth while although slightly time consuming. There was then a lot of rushing around and placing works here there, lots of trying out ideas. Having been told it was a group show, and to be reasonably flexible with the hanging of my work, I decided to go round and talk with people about their work and assist them with there on. Other people may have been more selfish and devoted their time to making sure that their work was more in the limelight of the exhibition. Noticeable. Which I would have been like if I was happy and proud of my work. As it was I wasn't particularly. I did at points during the curation days become frustrated, exasperated, irritated etc. not always with individuals but with how changing the show could be bits of it would work and then none of it would. But when it did, it was rewarding. It made us happy.
I was pretty pleased with the show as an end result and the experience in general.

Here are some photographs I took during curation and on the night.

These frames on the wall is what I did for the exhibition. My piece consisted of a map of the tube in the bottom of the frame, a photographic image, and a bit of writing. Basically the piece was made from me following people on the tube. Now there was some rules to the following. i was to keep within zone one and two. If they changed lines I could follow them. I was only to follow them underground. I wouldn't therefore follow them up the escalators and through the barriers. 

There was no real choosing about who'd i'd follow I perhaps should've stood by the barriers and said to myself next person who walks through that barrier I will follow, often it wasn't as simple as that though,  I found myself debating reasons in my head. Sometimes its because they looked like a typical london commuter, they looked interesting, I like some aspect about them-therefore they intrigued me, I felt they may be going somewhere interesting.. anything like that really, thinking back a refinement I would make would be to make a stricter rule of how to select my subjects. I think I would make other constraints. I'd also change how I presented my findings, or experiment a bit more with ideas. Sometimes I felt like a stalker other times like a spy. Since doing the piece i've found myself seeing people I'd like to follow but not being able to because I had other plans. So the map element, show the route they take, from when they get on the tube, to when they leave, or when I lose them, which did occasionally happen. Which lead me to think i wouldn't make a good spy. The photograph is of the subject. I wasn't going to necessarily be Black and white. But I think It works well this way. And adds a sort of spy CCTV quality. The written element is maybe the more conceptual bit, this is where some of the underlying thoughts and feeling come in, here I written down my observations, and some presumptions and ideas about the subject. This is to highlight the snap judgements we make about people, without helping it, the piece is about broadly the tube/public transport in London, but particularly looking at social behaviour. The piece I'm quite happy for people to interpret how they will, and all feedback has been interesting. How I've presented it is quite precise, or ideally precise as possibly. I tried to measure things. There are some things I would make neater and more precise, given the chance, how it was hung is precise as well, I measured the distance between its frame edge, so it should be the same, along with the height. Someone suggested to me when I was talking about my work and how I'd like it hung to hang it below eye line, as a subtle comment on it being done underground. This I'm sure was not noticed by the audience/viewers of the exhibition as the reason why. But I liked the idea and went along with it. It was important though that it could still be read. 

Its location in the exhibition was across the popcorn. This was done so that people would have to walk on the popcorn (which was the intention) to see my work. My worry was that my work would not be seen therefore because people would not dare cross the popcorn. And therefore my work would miss out, thinking back I should've waited longer before stepping on the popcorn myself. Since I was the first.

Anyway here is some more photographs of other works in the show. (not by me) 

Starting with more individuals works

Interaction with works (artist did not direct interaction but was happy for it to happen, it was up to the audience to do what they liked, once viewing had commenced she said it was out of her hands). Above   Photograph is before any interaction. 

Overall show.

Show put on my students. 

Exhibition of their own works. 

Pipilotti Rist Eyeball Massage at the Hayward Gallery

My knowledge of this artist was next to nothing before visiting the hayward (quite a few months ago now :S) but I am so glad I did, I came away disheartened because there was no way I could have produced such a show, even in a few years time, I thought/ think I will never be as pleased with my own exhibition as Rist should feel with this. Yes maybe a more beneficial constructive feeling would've been challenged or inspired to try harder do better, defeated isn't exactly going to produce me a good artwork. However I have persevered with my own work, which I won't talk about in this post..

Back to Rist. Her work as an overall summary is largely about how we experience film. The exhibition contains a number of her films, all presented in what we would say a bizarre way, although this is because we are used to experiencing film, on screens/projectors on the walls, predominantly, the only time I personally have witnessed films in any other way is at my dentists when it was usefully on the ceiling, right above my eyes.
The other thing about her work is the contents of her films. They have what I would call a definite 'fine art' feel. That is to say subjects or themes or contents of these films look at or experience things on another level to what the general public don't on a day to day basis.

For example in this particular film the subject is experiencing what I would call a sensual experience with nature. In the Hayward this film appears on three screens, behind which is a mirror with lots of cushions in the middle. Initially I sat with everyone else witnessing the film against the mirror but I felt like this might not be witnessing the film like it was intended so I lay in the middle on the cushions and watched it in the mirror.

This film has its own set to be shown in. The set almost seems fantasy, disaster or dream. The moon seems to have intruded a teenage boys room. The set is almost like a dolls house, in the hayward the set was darker than this. What I do notice is that the bed is empty which make me think less of the dream idea. But it does bring to mind childlike fairy tales and stories. 

Whats interesting about this film is its location. The film is projected onto the floor in a toilet cubicle in the female loo at the Hayward which gives it exclusive viewing to females. Which is pretty good for me. Its in just the one cubicle, so even if you did use the loo, you wouldn't necessarily get to see the film. I think because its such a bizarre thing and even if you see a notice, or a int of the film, by word of mouth or something, there is still an air of doubt. I found it brilliant. The film itself seemed about odd, bits of it reminded me of a book/film called 'I capture the Castle'  by Dodie Smith, there's a bit in it where the stepmother and the main character run around naked on the moors, which reminds me of the the sound of music too. In any case it felt slightly mad, the location of the film might have hindered this view. I think the location IS key, on the floor in a individual cubicle in a gallery. 

This installation contains three films (the knickers light isn't part of it) . On the far wall we have various objects, including tights, hats clothing, bottle, protective packing material etc.. projected on to this and the other wall appears to be natural/landscape scenes like those from a train or a road. The little white square almost in the corner of the room on the non textured wall, is of Rist talking on the train. But its just really of her mouth, chin and nose. On the floor is a model of a house and garden, alone, at the end of a road there is a film projected onto it, or in it. I'm not sure I really know what to make of the piece. I   like the house and garden probably because I like architectural programmes, and I had a dolls house when i was younger, and have the desire to build have a house of my own.
The film of Rist talking interests me because of the angle and focus of the camera, The zoomed in view  of her mouth in particular, I think this interests me as on my foundation course I filmed everyday things and focused in on the action too. For example my films of people brushing their teeth were focused in on the mouth. This although was to almost protect the identity of the person. Or maker them harder to distinguish and make the more likely to take part. I think those aspects of the piece I connect with most.

This tiny film on the floor is almost missable.

A film inside a shell.

Throughout the exhibition at the Hayward The curator in discussion with Rist have erected these thin/almost transparent vale like dividers  to separate film works. I think this has worked very well even benefited the films and given them a more 'Alice in Wonderland' mystic quality, particular in this piece, I almost image them to be like trees, which reminds me of films or even plays, for example midsummer nights dream. There are stuffed clothes on the floor which almost resemble dead bodies, or sleeping ones if you want to be less dramatic, the film itself is projected almost through the hanging curtains, fragmented and projected on the them. There are layers of curtains so if you view the film on them it is distorted. You can wander through the hangings, and  almost lose yourself. Which is quite an experience. I felt almost out of my body. But then the whole exhibition is almost out of body, like a dream. 

      

Gerhard Richter- Tate Modern

I will first talk about the last room in this exhibition. The cage room  which I managed to see on two separate occasions, due to being able to access it without a ticket. The first time was with a fellow fine art student and friend from a different college in London. I mention this as it was a beneficial experience for the both of us. And it made me realise how valuable discussions about artwork can be. My friend announced fairly quickly that he wasn't that keen on the work, I being interested to know why,  tried to get him to tell me his reasons why and thus a conversation started. It then turned to me to say why I liked the work. We discussed the scale of the work, the texture/layering of the paint, we looked closely at small details, and stepped back to look at it as a whole. We looked at all the paintings together in the room and gradually we both found things we could like. Afterwards my friend said that our discussion had opened his 'painting eye'. I found it quite hard to talk about the reasons why I liked it. So the experience was quite challenging for me, as it forced me to explain and articulate my ideas surrounding the work.

'Cage Grid' Painting.

Curation Analysis
Overall I wasn't really keen on the curation. In my eyes a good exhibition is one in which you 'fall in love with the Artist'. And since I already liked Richter's style I expected to be blown away, thus was the hype of the exhibition, I did however come away feeling almost disappointed.
I felt that some of the groupings in the rooms didn't work well for me. There were lots of twos or more series of paintings grouped which worked well, abstracts, but then sometimes amongst series of abstracts grouped together they'd be a piece that to me didn't quite fit. They'd be some of his typical colourful squeegee abstracts alongside a more figurative painting of flowers or something. He seemed maybe to be making a contrast, between abstract and figurative however I felt that it upset my appreciation for each painting in the room. Because I felt I was thinking too much about the groupings and not bout the paintings individually.
I was also I little confused about the overall curation structure, it seems to be some rooms were paintings from the same period of time, from the same project/title/series, painting style. So to me the exhibition felt a bit of a jumble.

'18th October 1977'

The rooms I did like, were room 4- 'grey paintings and colour charts', room 9- '18th October 1977', a rather chilling series bringing to life the controversial lives and deaths of four German social activists turned terrorists. (http://historyofourworld.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/october-18-1977-gerhard-richter/).
Later in the exhibition in room 13 I believe is an image of 9/11. Which Richter had a bigger connection with than most as he on that very date was on a flight heading to the United States, his plane was diverted and didn't seem to have terrorists on board, but I think the painting which wasn't a typical twin towers painting, had a strong connection with the artist himself, as his story of 9/11 could've been his death. Not his near death. We all have stories of where we were when we heard. The news on the day etc. I think Richter has in his mind to remind us of terrible events or chilling events, we can maybe only speculate his reasons for this, or simply assume wishes to shock audiences with pas happenings as a way to evoke emotion alongside his work.
 and room 14 - 'cage'. I might have favoured the work in these rooms better, as for at least two of the rooms there was a running theme and style. The mostly grey painting and sculptural painting room, with a colour chart (room 4) reminded me of a book I had as a child 'Elmer' by David Mckee, a book about a patchwork elephant called Elmer, who wanted to be like all the other elephants, so rolled in blackcurrant juice, until she resembled the rest of her kind, I can't remember the whole story but she ended up being happy with the way she was, and all the other elephants painted themselves. Anyway I made a connection with the Richter room, it reminded me of something pleasant.

Not exhibited in the room in question, but an example of a similar palette.

Elmer 

An example of a Richter colour chart

As a painter Richter definitely has his own style but his style is rich with

various techniques and themes, his range of subject is not narrowed to one

Richter has a far few to choose from. He is perhaps better known for particular styles but thats not to say his other work is less good. I feel Richter has explored different methods and ways to use paint. I don't feel he does the same thing over and over. Although I didn't like the curation on my first and only visit, it did give one a overall view of the different ways he applies 'paint to canvass'.