Farewells

After the conclusion of this project I find myself clinging to this quote and hopefully it will ring true for the sake of my future exhibitions.

"Failure is success if we learn from it."

Malcolm Forbes

Thank you for taking an interest in my work. This will be my last post.

Self-Evaluation

                The content of my project I believe fulfilst he assessment criteria and responds to the brief in an effective manner , it establishes a connection to the immediate area and the surrounding environment, involving both the landscape and the locals using photographic forms and including materials from the scenes. The use of bottles was the main feature however this was dominated by the number of jars I had to use in order to light my work, prior to the exhibition this had occurred to me and in an attempt to remedy it I painted all the lids in the same colour to try and create a sense of replication; so that the differences weren’t so distinct. The use of glass and plastic was useful and beneficial as it did water proof the installation and protect the photographs when it started to rain on the day.

The work could have been improved if I had continued to shoot more photographs, specifically the portraits as I limited myself in the edit, I think that the addition of physical material in the containers did add another level of interest to the work and am happy that I persevered with that, however I would have liked to have had larger bottles and more in number so not to have needed to use the jars, as in the end I found them to be a distraction. The umbrellas that I put additional photographs on were a response to public comfort, to encourage viewing despite the rain; I think this was a good idea but could have been improved simply by making them more visible.

 Despite all of these faults I did like my finished product and hoped that they few that viewed it appreciated the display.

 

Due to the weather on the second day I had to moved my work inside.

 

 

 

Spectator Interaction

In comparison to the other pieces of work displayed in the exhibition I think mine was probably one of the least interactive, I did try to position the bottles so that the viewer would have to move around the space in order to see inside of them however due to the lack of visitors I didn’t really see whether it was a successful ploy.  I think that I could have developed the interactive aspect more and used more mediums to improve the level of interest in my work, I see now that I limited myself greatly during the developing and initial ideas stage.

Evaluation of Exhibition

                My finished installation was the product of my research and creative reaction to the space, it represented my own perceptions of the local environment, as well as relating to themes found The Mumbles Yacht Club which housed the final exhibition. With this in mind I believe that my work fulfils the criteria of the brief set by my University lecturers, however there are elements that in hindsight could have been improved and choices that could have been made differently which would have benefitted us.

                Despite the initial intrigue of the Mumbles Yacht Club I believe its location limited us greatly, we should of taken into greater account the influence of the weather on what is basically a shore side social club/bar, a vehicle is needed to reach which adds a cost to the exhibition I think people were unwilling to pay, the distance made viewing it a hassle. We had permission to use the entire building, but most of it was open plan meaning a lot of space which in the end did not work in our favour. This was because in order for the space to look like an exhibition and not an empty bar our works would have to be quite large, we did not consider this at the time and created works that were small and slotted into small spaces which were easily missed.

                I think that the aspect we failed to maximize on was the advertising, I thought our organisation was poor in this area and the posters weren’t utilized as they were only up a couple of days before the dates of the exhibition. This was costly as people would have needed time to organise viewing our exhibition due to its location.

                I think our exhibition could have been improved by adding and advertising other features to entice an audience into viewing, for example having a bar or providing souvenirs (such as small prints) so that the visit could become more of an event.

                On the whole I believe the main issue was that our work wasn’t daring enough, introducing pieces that the audience could interact with would have probably drawn more attention and made the installations more noticeable in the large space.

                If I were to organise another exhibition I would also choose a different time and dates to hold it on, the fact that the show was in the middle of the week and in the middle of the day excluded a lot of the public, as school and work hours conflict with the times set for the exhibition. I think we would have had more viewers if the exhibition had been on a weekend as well, especially as this is when people often visit the shore and enjoy spending time viewing art.

The Exhibition

The two days of the exhibition have now been and gone, after the first day of the exhibition I felt extremely disheartened, everyone displayed their work on time but throughout the entire day only ten people visited. The work itself seemed sparse in the large space we had acquired for the display and due to the poor weather the location of the exhibition was not helpful as it was by the shore and the building itself was quite isolated from the rest of the town.

 

The Fruits of Team Work

Once each member had displayed their pieces of art, I felt that all the themes worked very well together to create a representation of the surrounding area. Steph Langridge provided visually illustration of the changes in the weather with her installation, in my own work I displayed seascapes and depiction of locals who lived in the area. Hannah Johnson’s work even showed the less desirable aspects of mumbles through her take on the postcard conventions; similarly Malin Lindstrom used items left on the beach to depict a different perspective of the people and the environment. And last of all Kieran Hosking focused on what you could see from simply looking out of the window of our exhibition, all of these works make up an identity of the space and the people who live there.

 Steph Langridge

 

 



 

Hannah Johnson

 

 

 

Malin Lindstrom

 

 

Kieran Hosking

 

Risk Assessment

Finishing Touches

                For the exhibition I created a short leaflet that describes briefly the basis of each of the works, in my own paragraph I also explain the reason for the exhibition so that the viewer understands the project that little bit more.

                The design of the leaflet mimics that used for the poster advertising the exhibition, I felt continuing the theme would create a sense of professionalism.  Inside I also included an e-mail address for each member of the group so that a contact was available for the viewer encase they wished to ask questions after the dates of the exhibition, another feature in the leaflet was a title for each of the works, I believed it was important to establish a specific name for the pieces so they could be easily recognised, as well as being a tool to capture the interest of the viewer.  

 

 

Steph Langridge kindly volunteered to make name cards for each of us to place by our works, I thought this was a helpful feature to have.

My Army of Glass

I have finished  constructing my exhibition pieces, there are 14 bottles and jars in total, I decided on having four umbrellas available and in order to relate them to my display I have attached small prints of my photographs to the inside of the panels. All the lights are working thankfully and now I am all set for the exhibition.

 

 

Prototype

I realised that I had foolishly forgotten to blog an image of my prototype, so here it is.

 

I need to find a better way of securing the photograph; I’m leaning towards sticky back plastic which will hopefully water proof the image as well. The weight of the glass should mean that the wind will not be an issue, the only concern I have is that the work will look better in dim light and I fear my assessment is going to be in the morning.

"Read All About It!"

Advertisment

 

It was decided that the best way to advertise our exhibition was through the age old method of sticking posters anywhere there is a free space.

                Kieran Hosking has lovingly put his time into creating this poster, and now all we have to do is start sticking them around the city. We were are also required to create an invitation for our tutors, detailing the time and location of our exhibition, Steph Langridge volunteered for this job and has created a beautiful invitation, which the whole group is grateful for.

 

Curiosity motivated Exploration

                In my initial research I looked at ships/messages in bottles as you all are aware, however a somewhat obvious detail that somehow managed to pass me by was the method in which people could actually place a solid ship model through the narrow necked of a bottle.

                And so I ask how do you get a ship into a bottle?

Wikipedia despite its bad reputation for meddling with facts has prevailed for me this time, and enlightened me in this matter, and here it is for you.

“There are several ways to put a ship inside a bottle. The simplest way is to rig the masts of the ship and raise it up when the ship is inside the bottle. Masts, spars, and sails are built separately and then attached to the hull of the ship with strings and hinges so the masts can lie flat against the deck. The ship is then placed inside the bottle and the masts are pulled up using the strings attached to the masts.^[1][2] The hull of the ship must still be able to fit through the opening.^[3] Bottles with minor distortions and soft tints are often chosen to hide the small details of the ship such as hinges on the masts.

Alternatively, with specialized long-handled tools, it is possible to build the ship inside the bottle.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_bottle#Ship_in_a_bottle)

15 Days Until Show Time!!!!

                The group and I have decided upon creating a poster and small flyers to advertise our exhibition, we have left it quite late with the intention of capturing the spontaneity in people, as we doubted anyone would put the date of our show in their diary. The Mumbles Yacht Club is well known to locals, which has worked in our favour because I have been able to advertise via word of mouth with ease and without the need of complex directions. I will be uploading the poster on here as well as on social networking sites, and we have also gained permission to place them in a local library and some of the smaller galleries and museums. The flyers are something that people can take away with them, and will be left in the university entrance for people to pick up. Each of our group will have some handy to give out to friends and strangers a like.

Whittling Down

                I have produced a large amount of material from the shoots, too much to display here. Therefore I have edited the photographs down to the more practical number of 29 images, and created some contact sheets that show photos from all three of the shoots; hence the change in lighting, weather and of course the physical location of the shot. These images are those I feel have the most potential and would be happy to place in the finished installation. I have chosen this selection of images in particular because I think as a series of work, they provide a variety of eye catching angles, colours and subject matter; something I feel is important in this project as it is vital to grab the attention of a viewer and try to prolong their interest for as long as possible.

(It appears my contact sheets are compatible so here are some that I will defiantly be using in the exhibition.)

 

 

 

 

                 I have chosen some seascapes over others because I wanted to be able to take an element from the photograph and place it in the jar/bottle with it, for example with the image that has long grass in the bottom left corner, when I shot it I took a few blades of grass which I will then place inside the jar.

                It has been advised by my tutor to photograph more portraits of beach dwellers, and I agree that having more photographs to choose from would put me in a better position; however I am pleased by my progress and look forward to creating my prototypes, both the jar/bottle and the umbrella.

Shooting Beach Dwellers

Early this morning, between eight and ten, I was back on the beach for shoot three. I found that this is the best time to hunt for people to photograph on the beach because there are a lot of dog walkers, joggers, couples and other photographers walking along the beach; there was even one sunbather despite it being November, but I doubted she was in the mood to be photograph after I witnessed her being attached by an overly excited dog. Nevertheless I managed to photograph some cheerier people, everyone I asked was more than happy to partake in the project, which I am very grateful for.

                 During this shoot I focused on obtaining portraits of people and birds, however there are some seascapes as I wish to produce a large amount of material, allowing for plenty of options regardless of the extra editing time it will take.

 All the portraits are of a similar distance as well as full length portraits; I felt that this composition fitted most appropriately with the model in a bottle theme because I will shrink them to fit inside the bottles, like the model boat, instead of cropping. The distance as chosen specifically because in my opinion it allows for easy viewing of the finer details as well as including the surrounding environment; providing context to the photograph.

Here is a selection from Shoot 3 -

 

Wise Words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

"The best thing one can

 do when it's raining is to let it rain."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I have been considering the very high possibility of rain, and how I could adapt my project so that it wouldn’t interfere. Luckily all of my pieces so far are made of glass and therefore waterproof, electrical candles will have to be used so that I can seal them preventing water altering the contents. The only major problem would be getting people to brave the rain; in response I have devised a second creation that can be used to display work and to protect viewers from the rain. I will buy a few clear, domed umbrellas and attach portraits (my photography) on a few of the panels, making sure visibility is still high; I could leave the umbrellas by the door that leads to the roof so that the public can use them to see the jars and also utilize the desire to stay dry by putting work on the umbrella. I might experiment with partially translucent paper, and see if that is effective.

Finding Inspiration- Christian Boltanski

                All of my installation pieces are going to be outside, and due to the time of year that the exhibition is in (November) there will most defiantly be a lack of light. I need a light source so that the details of the photographs can be visible and hopefully appreciated. Therefore I needed to be enlightened on the different approaches I could take when illuminating my photographs/material, and so I have turned to some of Christian Boltanski’s works.

 

 

 

                Although all of these works are displayed in interior spaces, the interesting use of light has given me some more creative directions when planning the illumination of my own work. The centre image in particular with the orange cast to the light, reminds me of the glow of a candle, something I think would be an alluring feature when looking into a bottle or jar, as it creates a sense of fascination. The thoughts of fire/candles was also provoked by the shadows in the bottom image, the figures remind me of depictions of people dancing around a fire.
                I have primarily used these photographs for their aesthetical features and for technical inspiration; my denotations do not truly reflect the context or theme behind the images. These three images are from a series in which Christian Boltanski focuses on using a range of mediums to ‘represent a deep contemplation regarding reconstruction of the past’, specifically the tragedy of mass murder.  


(Images found on http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/photo_gallery/slideshow/boltanski/)

My First Wave of Photographs

Here is a selection of images I have taken over the past two weeks, the first shoot was done during the late evening and the second was conducting at eight ‘o’clock this morning, where I enjoyed a spontaneous downfall of rain, but that is the trade mark of Wales I suppose.

    

 

 

Whilst on the roof of the Yacht club I noticed their flag blowing around and thought it would make a lovely feature in a sky scape.

 

 

 

These photographs are from the second shoot.

 

 

 

I plan on doing a couple more shoots focusing on the landscape in a few weeks, but right  now my main priority is to take some portraits of willing beach dwellers.