Thursday, 22 March 2012

EXHIBITION - P2P




We (Sarah, Andrew, Alan and I) planned to organise a flash-mobby public exhibition. The original title of our exhibition plan was Free Range Photographic. Below was Alan's memo of our first meeting.

Exhibition Summary

The aim is to have a number (4 seems the most popular but could be fewer or more?) of exhibitions where the participants are encouraged to show their images or image in a public place. The participants would find out about the location and timing of the event through advertising on the internet (Facebook etc.), media publication (e.g. Timeout) and printed publicity (Posters, flyers etc.).
The locations would be different for each exhibition and the style of presentation could/would be modified depending on the location.

Locations

The location mentioned so far are (I'm not sure if we dismissed any of these but thought I'd include them at this point):
  1. Tate Modern (inside Turbine Hall) [AC to contact Tate]
  2. Tate Modern (outside)
  3. Brick Lane Houses
  4. V&A Tunnel
  5. Stoke Newington Gallery Hall [AM to email manager]
  6. Trafalgar Square outside National Gallery
  7. A park e.g. Serpentine or the square near Liverpool St. Station where the statue is!
  8. Hoxton Square
  9. Cork St.
  10. Vinyl St.
Dates
We would try to have the events over four consecutive weekends.
May 12th thru June 2nd were pencilled in as possible dates i.e. after the essay is handed in. (We need to check that these dates don't clash with any other major event e.g. Golden Jubilee).

Exhibition Name

Free Range Photographic was suggested and will be used as a working title.

Roles/Tasks

We agree that we would need to have someone assigned to or make sure we cover the following:
  1. Overall Team Leader
  2. Project Manager responsible for each location to cover things we haven’t thought of!
  3. Legal stuff
  4. Advertising Content and Design
  5. Online presence (website etc.)
  6. Physical Media Production
  7. Planning
  8. Not a complete list.............
Besides the core group there are a number of people who are happy to help e.g. Robert, Pavla.

Advertising/Publicity

Possible advertising routes are:
  • Online
  1. Free Range Website
  2. Blog?
  3. Facebook
  4. Twitter
  5. loads more to add..........
  • Publications
  1. Timeout
  2. BJP
  3. Loads more to add.......
  • Printed
  1. Posters at Universities, Art Galleries etc
  2. Flyers
  3. Postcards
  4. etc?......
Advert Design, Trial Run

We need to give some serious thoughts to how the exhibitions are advertised. In this context it was suggested we should take some images in the next few weeks in possible locations and then use photoshop to produce some mock-ups of the poster etc. Also suggested we try to produce an artists impression of the exhibition.

Exhibition Styles of Presentation

A number of possible approaches could be taken (this isn’t a complete list but should get us thinking):
  1. People would bring small, medium and very large images to the location and stand with their image discuss their images with other people.
  2. A more performance oriented approach would require a curator, providing some narrative where images are arranged in groups
  3. A more conventional approach could be taken where there is a physical wall e.g. Stoke Newington or the V&A Tunnel with images put on the wall. (Something like the The Royal Academy but without the vetting process!)
  4. Images could be displayed via a projector onto a wall, tree or whatever is nearby
  5. etc.......
Selling

Should we encourage people to sell their images? Does this create problems in terms of local bi-laws, museums etc.

Audience

Not sure we discussed this but who are we aiming this at? Arty types, university arty types, photography enthusiasts, anyone, all of the above...........

Research

We should all start to research similar events that have happened either in London or other places. [All]

Budget

We didn’t discuss this but we should try to get some idea of how much we want to spend on this!

Next Meeting

Next Wednesday 15th Feb. after/before the lectures

Saturday, 17 March 2012

EXHIBITION - PRESS RELEASE



Heather gave us a workshop on press release and advertising matters. I never noticed the difference among galleries in press release. We compared White Chapel Azrina Bhimji's release and Hale Gallery Sebastiaan Bremer's. Heather demonstrate the huge difference between a public institutional gallery and a commercial one as the example. The WhiteChapel one is journalistic and institutional, but Hale one is geared to sell by promoting the artist. We deconstructed press release format.

Header: Data (Venue, title, name, dates) & Visual (a thumbnail image).
Text: Summary, Context (explanation of the show/artist; detailed description of the exhibition content, explanation of work - why it matters), Biography (background of artist), Other info (notes of editors, events etc), & Contact info for press.

We also discussed a few guidelines to be concise, engaging, honest, accessible, visual, well-written. In general it is very useful as it makes me to notice lots of dejavu I never noticed before.

We also looked through the printing matters such as poster, postcard to promote exhibitions. Graphic design is essential in conveying informations and promotions.

Thursday, 8 March 2012

EXHIBITION - GALLERY WALK

Installation Shot of Sebastiaan Bremer's "Heavenly Joy / Deadly Sorrow" in Egmont Revisited Exhibition at Hales Gallery




Heather Barnett led a gallery walk for us today. We met a White Chapel to see Zarina Bhimji (www.zarinabhimji.com). Then to The Rug Factory, Next Level Projects, Brick Lane Gallery and finally at Hales Gallery. The purpose is to see these exhibitions in a detached way to analyse the context and the ways of presentation, and ask why. Bhimji's show hang large prints lower than the traditional height, gives more intimacy and visual impact. There is a strong trace element in all her work. I also quite like Sebastiann Bremer's work (http://www.sebastiaanbremer.com/images/). He paints on photography with little beads. It gave me an embodied discomfort in the first glance, however slowly I feel it directs me to the surface under these portraits, biological and meta-physical. The little dot outside the contour some with colour gives a dreamy transcendent feel exploring the inner world with the external one. Quite fascinating. Anyway, the galleries we visited ranges from public, independent to commercial. From very low end to the other extreme. I like this kind of group gallery visit - seeing more things.

p.s. Interesting to know the biggest star shop "Atlantis" in Brick Lane. Fancy to visit it someday.