The Open Night!

Last night we had the open night. What a fantastic evening!!!! I had such a wonderful time and I was really impressed with the numbers of people who attended. I think we got the position of our paintings right and the exhibition flowed very nicely. My overall judgement is that it looked professional.

Me with two of my paintings

It was a really good chance to network aswell. I picked up quite a few e-mail adresses and buisness cards. I got talking to some photographers, one works in events promotion and the other is a film maker. It was really interesting to hear about their own work and projects.

People at the exhibition! :)

Lucy's photoshoot

Heather with a painting of herself

Rose even sold one of her paintings! I just had to take a photo of the red dot to show her!

The location of the exhibition was a good choice. The atmosphere of the regenerated building felt quite bohemian and I think it suited our work as new, young artists.

Contrasting this experience with my work experience with Wolstenholme last year I have determined several factors which are important for the organisation of an exhibition...

• Art work completed well before deadline
• Effective communication with the gallery and other participating artists
• Suitable choice of gallery venue
• Flexibility when choosing works to be exhibited in discussion with co-artists and curator
• Advertising via posters, postcards, press release, e-mail invites, facebook events group.
• Team work with co-artists in setting up exhibition
• 
  

I hope this experience of exhibiting my work might be the first of many.

Hanging Exhibition

On our second day of hanging our exhibition we knew what we needed to to, because we had already decided how and where to hang our work in the gallery space.

We began by attaching mirror plates to the back of Lucy and Rose's paintings (mine were hung on the wall the previous day).

We all worked as a team to make sure the paintings were perfectly straight and looked right on the walls before drilling. It was definitely a job for four sets of eyes. Three of us may have decided that the painting was straight and then the fourth would pipe up and say 'oooh, no maybe the right side needs to come up half a millimetre'. It was quite amusing to find out how much of a difference half a millimetre makes on the wall and how obsessive we all became in a gallery space. Ofcourse I don't think thats a bad thing at all! We had to make it as perfect as we could. I was really proud of how well we all worked together!

Rose's wall was tiled. We worried that the tiles make crack whilst drilling. Some internet instructions suggested we drilled into the grouting between the tiles. However when we looked... there wasn't much grouting left. The tiles were over 200 years old you see. But we managed in the end without causing any damage and Rose's paintings looked even better when hung at eye level.

Then we began work with Lucy's paintings. The drilling was much less stressful because it was a brick wall.

Lucy was also considering bringing her 7ft painting into the exhibition to be displayed above the window. Although we knew this would be a challenge to lift it to this height we measured the wall to see it the painting would fit. It would have been a squeeze but possible. Lucy decided in the end not to bring the painting in.

Curation Curation Curation

On Tuesday Rose, Lucy and I began working with Lisa to hang our paintings.

In the morning we focused on the flow of the exhibition. Which walls suited whos work, what order to have our paintings, and how we would hang them. This took most of the morning but after much delibertation and thought we were all happy. I really enjoyed this process because we all wanted everyones work to be shown at its best, and I really believe that once the show has been hanged we will be proud of the atmosphere and flow of it.

In the afternoon we used mirror clips to attach our canvases to the wall. My works were the first to go up because my wall proved to be the simplest for drilling into. Rose's work will be on a tiled wall, which could be difficult and Lucy's wall will be made of brick.

Day two in Berlin

Guggenheim Berlin

We arrived at the Guggenheim at 10am and met with the rest of our group. I was surprised that the gallery was so small. It was only the size of an entrance, a larger exhibiting room and a gift shop. When I visited the Guggenheim in Venice it was much larger and without meaning to sound unappreciative, the quality of work there was much better too.

I was disappointed with Agathe Snow's 'ALL ACCESS WORLD'. The work was very poorly executed with bits of snipped up cartridge paper slapped haphazardly onto walls. I heard one visitor say that it 'seemed like it was just a good excuse to have a paid for trip around the world'... and you know what?! I agree! It wasn't well thought our curated or presented. For an institution as world renowned as the Guggenheim to exhibit something like this... well... *wags finger in anger* shame on you Guggenheim! I'm sure the reason given would be that 'it was a child like rendering of the journey to show the learning of new cultures' or 'to show the simplification of the world globalisation has brought about.' well you know what... I think its an insult to children's artistic abilities... so yeah... not too keen really!\

If the exhibition was about globalisation then I think the gift shop expressed it in a much better way than the art. And I'm not just saying that because I bought a really cool cat hologram bookmark. We were in Berlin, and yet we could buy a jelly mould of the Taj Mahal, Roman Colosseum. Or a key ring of the Eiffel Tower. I  <3 globalisation as of this day!

Holocaust Memorial

What a powerful memorial! From the outside it looks like it gains height ... when you walk through it it also gains depth. I remember walking through and feeling quite disorientated. It was like walking thought a sea of marbe. It was such a overwhelming feeling to stand in the centre amongst the tallest columns and look up to them. they where like stacks of graves. Its was quite an upsetting experience, and a moving tribute.

New National Gallery Berlin


I LOOOOVED the New National Gallery!! The works there were so inspiring and fantastic! One room I especially enjoyed was the portraiture room... (surprise surprise!) It reminded me of the Royal Academy's summer exhibition in its layout. It was an interesting way to set out such works.
 A particular painting I fell in love with was called 'Sonja' by Christian Schad. I really admired the art deco style of painting. It reminded me of one my favourite painters Tamara De Lempicka. And the composition is so simple, but gives a real sense of the busy atmosphere of the cafe.

Daaaay one in the Berlin Amstel House!

Hello Everyone!!

I am in a very jolly mood today... I had the BEST WEEK OF MY LIFE in Berlin last week and I just can't stop telling people about it... so here I am to tell YOU about it too! (Although... I'm going to separate it into different posts to you wont get bored of me blathering on about things you're not interested in).

I guess I should begin at the beginning then. One of the first things I noticed when we arrived in Berlin was the grand scale of everthing: buildings, roads, lamposts ... (even some of the people where pretty darn tall) It was just incredible! The architecture of the city is so immensly detailed and luxurious and its as though the city as a whole is trying to be the most elite.... Ok, I've not seen every city in the world. but it must come close!

Another thing which really impressed me were the countless works of graffiti on almost every wall. They're not like the graffiti art I'm used to, where someone quickly scrawls their initials on a bus stop, they're so well thought out. Some pieces were advertisments, some were political messages and some had no real purpose other than to just brighten up certain areas, but they were all so artistic and well thought out.

The work at the artists quarters in Oranienburger Tor had some incredible graffifti. Here are some pieces around the city which really impressed me.

The Hamburger Banhof Gallery

• Richard Long
• Anselm Kiefer
• Joseph Beuys

Our first meeting with the tutors in Berlin was at the Hanburger Bahnof Gallery, where we saw the work by land artist Richard Long. I've heard much about his work in the past but have never been lucky enough to come across it in person. It was a real treat. Long's work is a recording of his travels and a collection of materials from these locations. The circles of life are his trademark, and alothough with something like this there is a real danger of being kitch, he excecuted it in a manner which made it more about the spiritual attatchment to places he has travelled to rather than just recreating the ideallistic qualities of the location.

I found it intruigiung to hear that the mud used for the wall painting (which was so presicely defined that I and a few others initially thought it was straw) was actually aquired form the river Avon (near his birthplace). For me this information strengthened the work as there is a physical attachment between the artist and his choice of medium.

In the next room on I fell in love with a collection of paintings by Anselm Kiefer. IN LOVE!! His paintings were so powerful, maybe it was the size, or it could have been the content, or the he texture and hues of his paintings . I was really intruiged by his use of bark and  a metal ship in one particular painting. To see this kind of mixed media effect gave the work a more mecanical feel. Perhaps the metal was a metaphor for the subject of war? and the bark was in cantrast to this. I dont know yet... but I certainly intent to do some research to find out!

Another thing which stayed in my mind was the concept behind Joseph Beuys' fat sculptures. The sculptures where produced by making a cast of a newly built pedesrtrian tunnel back in the 70's. The cast was made from animal fat. Fat is something Beuys uses often in his art, as he believed it to be a metaphor for warmth and life. In this case it was used to revive the dead space scar left in the land by the pedestrian crossing. I thought it was a very poetic artwork.

After a lovely evening exploring the delights of German cuisine and ... err beverages, we prepared for our visit to the Guggenhiem in the morning.