Testing design on gallery walls

Having finished the to-scale design for my wall painting, I sent it to Liam McCabe who, along with Emily Garvey, is curating Bittersweet, the group exhibition that will take place at Assembly House, Leeds in March. Liam had gained access to the gallery and set up a projector in the space to check that my image did indeed fit the wall. 

Liam had imagined situating my wall painting on the wall facing the entrance, but this wall turned out to be brick and this uneven surface may pose problems when using the tape to create the lettering and also to mask out the areas for painting. He has now suggested another wall, of the same dimensions, with flat walls. The projection worked very well, with the design clear, and fitting the wall well. 

I'd be giving too much away to show you the full design, but below is a sneak preview.

Unfortunately it was not possible to get the projected image to fit the wall as it was not possible to get the projector far enough away from the wall. However, it may be possible to split the image in two halves and use a couple of projectors to form the full design. 

Kielder OFFSITE exhibition install

These images show the progression of our work for the Kielder OFFSITE exhibition in the X Libris Gallery.

After masking out the basic shapes of the design, we began to use the tape to block in areas

We had tested the high-vis paint on a bit of wood. Initially it did not look very fluorescent, but once it had dried, it became much more vibrant and like we had imagined.

We hoped that this would be the same for when we used it to paint sections of the wall.

We were surprised and disappointed that the paint was so dark, dull and patchy. We left it to dry, hoping that this would change how it appeared.

We also tried painting a smaller section in the same paint, but this time used a roller to apply it rather than a brush.

Unfortunately it did not make any difference, and the paint was not as we had hoped.

We therefore changed our design and covered the paint with blocked areas of tape.

Tidying up the edges and removing some of the grubby marks from the wall were the finishing touches before the preview of the exhibition that evening.

                         

Off The Hook

It's that time of year; as undergraduate degree shows loom, hundreds of Art students wait anxiously to find out which space they will be exhibiting in. The workshops are a hive of activity with students working hard to bring their 3 or 4 year Fine Art degree to a close with an exhibition that they can be proud of and that will hopefully launch their careers as professional artists.

There is a surge in the number of exhibitions of work by final year students as they test out installation ideas, both on their own and in the context of a group exhibition.

'Off The Hook' is one such exhibition. It features sculpture, print and drawing by Rene McBrearty, Jess Thorsby and Alex Searle, whom are all final year students at Newcastle University. 

The three artists have filled both spaces of the System Gallery, Newcastle. I sense an eagerness to exhibit as much as possible. This results in the works feeling rather cramped which is a shame as the work is strong and many of the works could occupy the gallery on their own. It's a common belief, that the space needs to be filled with stuff, but this has the effect of undermining the power of the work individually. Perhaps this is particularly important in the case of sculptures which require the viewer to move around them, and this can become problematic when such movement causes the viewer to bump into other sculptures. The desire to put lots in is a tendency that I am wary of in my own practice, and when I reflect on some of my previous exhibitions, I immediately recognise that by including lots in a space, the space became cluttered and the works were compromised by having little room to breathe . A possible explanation for this cramming habit is a lack of confidence or an anxiety about needing to show the amount of work that has been produced.

I hope that each artist gets a real boost from the exhibition and takes this experience on board when installing their degree shows. I look forward to seeing what they produce. If 'Off The Hook' is anything to go by, we are in for a treat!

System Gallery, 22 Leazes Park Road, Newcastle

Silt

The annual Transmission Summer exhibition gives each member the opportunity to exhibit a piece of work in the gallery.

As with most other members exhibitions of this kind, one never really knows how the works will sit with each other, and creating a sense of cohesion is incredibly difficult given the unpredictability of what members choose to present.

I decided to take the opportunity to exhibit one of the pieces that I made while on my residency at Market, but changed the way it is displayed.

AT LAND - AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH URBAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING, Market Gallery

In the last few months since my residency and exhibition at Market Gallery, the committee have been busy sprucing up the gallery spaces, and effort that fully paid off for the current exhibition, AT LAND, which opened tonight.

It was unusual to see all three galleries being used for a single exhibition, and to see the spaces being used in different ways. For instance up until my residency, I had only ever seen video works being presented in gallery 3, and so it was refreshing for some other types of work to occupy the space.

I thought that the paintings chosen worked very well against the breezeblocks, and it was fascinating to see a range of artists work throughout their career, from recent graduates, to mid-career artists and established artists.

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AT LAND:

AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY
SCOTTISH URBAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING
MARKET GALLERY, GLASGOW
6TH OF JULY – 16TH OF AUGUST 2013
OPENING 5TH OF JULY 6-9PM

In landscape, one searches for memory. One searches for the traces that connect the familiar with the visible, moulding and making palpable the interstice between our own locality and the distant place.
- Sinead Dunn, July 2013
Market Gallery presents the exhibition AT LAND this summer, a survey exhibition presenting paintings by artists who depict a view of urban life in Scotland through the genre of the Urban Landscape. AT LAND will exhibit ten artists’ paintings that explore ways in which the inhabitants of Scotland occupy and populate the built environment, interact within communities and exist within local industries.
AT LAND will display paintings by: Steven Campbell, Aimi Ferrier, Helen Flockhart, Marianne Greated, Mabel Halliday, Katrin Jaberg, Lindsey Mclean, Carol Rhodes, Alastair Strachan and Mary Wintour. Presenting a varied approach to style, method, composition and genre within the history and tradition of painting, this exhibition will map ten artists’ view of urban life in Scotland today in a time of political, economic, cultural and social transition.
AT LAND will be a unique opportunity for visitors and locals to view paintings by a carefully chosen variety of emerging, mid-career and established painters, whose work responds to urban life and the landscape of Scotland in a non-white cube gallery space in the East End of Glasgow.

Opening Times: Thursday - Sunday 11am - 5pm
Market Gallery
334 Duke Street
Glasgow
G31 1QZ
This exhibition is supported by Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life, Creative Scotland and The Steven Campbell Trust.

Mud Wrestling - Transmission's annual member's show

MUD WRESTLING

03 July - 28 July 2012
Preview: 30 June 2012, 7pm

Transmission's annual member's show

Transmission Gallery Members Show

I have work exhibited in the following exhibition:

Transmission Gallery Members Show
28 King Street

July 5th - July 23rd 2011