Reflection

Thinking back to were 'Here' started as a group show at Sion Hill an then Moving it to Centrespace gallery it has most definitely evolved and become much stronger in linking the works together as well as the work itself being much more resolved, this is especially true in my work which went from being  wooden and clumsy to a metal frame which was better made and emphasised the ideas i wanted to show. Alex's work was also much more resolved with his piece in the show being more enclosed like a room and acting more as a barrier within the space than it did at the sion hill exhibition. Pace also stepped up the way his work was presented and made much more of an installation out of his work with the addition of rubble and dirt which was in bags which gave his work a look of deconstruction which i really enjoyed. Kelsey had additional work in this show which included a sound piece which was accessed through a telephone this bought audience engagement into the space and worked well with the engagement with people and my own sculpture.

This show was always going to look more like a white cube gallery because the space was a white walled gallery and we all prefer a minimal show compared to one which is too full and every piece vies for your attention. this could deter some viewers as these sorts of galleries are typically seen as being elitist which deters some people into the space. We tried to overcome this by always having the door open to the gallery and engaging with anyone who came to the door always appearing to smile and look inviting.

Over all i'm very pleased with how the exhibition went with great feedback from the public and being selected as Visual Arts South Wests pick of the week, but there are a few things i would change about the show, which i have listed below

1. We did not have anything explaining what each of the works meant, we had the concept behind the works but no detailed text about what that work meant to the artist and what it was saying through the materials used. I had pushed for this but unfortunately i said this too late and we did not have time and i feel we really missed out on an opportunity for the viewers to engage more with our work. 
2. We should have been more proactive with the way that we advertised the exhibition and not relied on free advertising from social media. Flyers would have been a perfect way to engage with the public while the exhibition was on and would have bought more people into the space.
3. We should have had an A2 Poster inside the gallery as well as on the A frames we had outside. We did has an A3 one inside but this looked so small on the wall and made it difficult for more than one person to read at a time.

Costings for the show

Printing £10

Drinks £40

Van Hire £120

Deposit for the gallery £150

Gallery hire cost for one week £250 

Total £570

Cost between the 4 of us £142.50

This just shows how much cheaper things become when you do them together i don't think any of us would have been able to put on the show alone because the cost would have been too high for that. By working together it became affordable to show our work in a public space. 

With the show we put on it was important our works worked together and i believe i'm very lucky to work with three other artists who have the same drive as i do, you cant do it alone you have to have other people around you to help each other succeed, if you surround yourself with success your more likely to be successful. 

I look forward to working with Kelsey, Pace and Alex on more projects in the near future 

Visitor Statistics

Bellow are the figures for how many people we had come to the exhibition each day it was open following on from the private view which was on Friday night. Some days were busier than others and after talking to the current exhibition at Centrespace we both agreed Sundays are very quiet for visitor numbers.

Saturday 27th of May: 39
Sunday 28th of May; 9
Monday 29th of May; 18
Tuesday 30th of May; 22
Wednesday 31st of May; 34

Total of 122 people over 5 days

Im pleased with the final number of visitors and we did have some really fascinating conversations with many of the visitors, with positive feedback towards the exhibition.

Visual Arts South West Pick Of The Week

The Keiken Collective were the guest editors for May on Visual Arts South West and selected our exhibition 'HERE' as the pick of the week 22-28th of May. This is the first time an exhibition at Centrespace had been selected for this honour and as you might guess we were very happy to hear that our hard work had paid off and we beat compotition from Bath Fringe Art Festivl and the rest of the South West.

Private View 26th May 2017

We had organised our private view for the friday as we believed this would be the best night because people have finished the working week but unfortunately with having it on the friday we clashed with Bristols Dot to Dot music festival and Baths Fringe Art Festival, this meant that our private view was not very well attended and we were left with a lot of drinks. Again Kelsey did a wonderful job with her film camera documenting the night. The images are below

'Big Bertha' (2017) 

Ellen Scott

left to right Will Hughes, Kelsey Cruz Martin, Alex Orton and Pace Frith

left to right Will Hughes, Kelsey Cruz Martin, Alex Orton and Pace Frith

On the night everyones work worked fine we had a rotation of Kelsey's sound piece and the music from Pace's work so that they did not compete with each other too much. We probably had about 10 people come to the private view which is a rather small number but the conversations had were interesting and fun. Unfortunately towards the end of the night my work 'Big Bertha' was broken with the weld breaking which made it spin, the top part still worked so we combated this by having a projected video of the piece working on the wall behind so people could still view the work in its entirety.

Exhibition images

These images show how the exhibition was curated. We had a collective view that the exhibition should not look too cluttered and full we wanted to go for a more minimal approach. We only had three pieces of work which were hung on a wall so we had to be careful where these pieces were situated to make sure the exhibition looked well rounded. Lighting played a key role in this as we needed the attention taking away from the blank walls and focusing on the floor pieces.

Kelsey Cruz-Martin

Synonymy 

2017 

Telephone, Walkman 

00:09:08

Alex Orton

Known (Unnoticed)

2017

Mild steel, birch ply

Variable dimensions

Kelsey Cruz-Martin

Fabrik von Dys/function

2017

Speakers, DVD player

00:31:20

Variable dimensions

Alex Orton

Known (Unnoticed)

2017

Mild steel, birch ply

Variable dimensions

Pace Frith

(Naughty Nigel) Shoot Me in the Face

2017

Two screens, speakers, rubble and sandbags

Audio/visual captured in Battlefield 1 (PlayStation 4)

Visitors enjoying the exhibition 

Will Hughes

Big Bertha

2017

Mild steel sheet, lead weight, window wiper motors, electronics, 12v battery, bubble machine and pink spray paint

0.6m x 2.4m x 1.8m

Curating an exhibition is a lot harder than it looks i have seen many an exhibition fail from poor curating, but i believe we had a good balance with our work and gave space for the work to breath rather than it being packed and the viewer not knowing where to look.