PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Our university was given a great opportunity to exhibit photography, fine art and FDA year 2 work at the Bargehouse on Southbank in London. I was fortunate enough to be able to curate at the Bargehouse. This was an amazing (and painful) experience that helped my development and understanding of the working world in the Arts. It was difficult having only a day to set everything up, especially as we were lacking certain items, equipment and information from students of what needed to be done with their work. Nevertheless, I am glad that I was able to be apart of this.
We made our way to London in the early hours of the morning. Once the van had arrived to the Bargehouse, we all immediately started to unload and place the works where they were allocated. The first problem that we had faced was that for some works, (mostly FDA work) hadn't enough space in their allocated spot. For example, we had 3-4 FDA work in one of the smallest rooms. We were eventually able to find the appropriate space - although this had caused a few problems with other students from the other courses. Regardless, we were all able to put these aside and continue to set up.
I would say the main problem that I faced was having to set up others work with little knowledge of what to do, but most importantly, having lost mine and Dani's mp3 player for the sound piece of our work. We had the mp3 player at the start of the day when we had placed all of our work in our allocated spot, but at some point it went missing. We had spent most of the day searching for it until we finally decided to stop our search and focus on setting uo for everyone else.
I do believe that everyone should have been there to help and set up their own work; It was understandable that not everyone could be there to set up their work, it just made the day for others a little bit harder. After I had set up fellow classmates work, Ben and Carrie etc, I helped Karolina finish setting up Miranda and Majd's work. Majd's work wasn't complicated, it was infuriating. Having to find his USB sticks were difficult but because the set up had the USB sticks so close, once u tried to set up one of them, it would connect to the other. Overall, his work was annoying, but we were able to successfully set it all up.
After helping with the majority of my classmates work, (the ones whom were unable to set up) I finally re-joined Dani and we both focused on setting up our work. We were both so grateful to have Brodie, (a 3rd year student) to help us set up our sound. Although we no longer had our mp3 player which contained our sound, Brodie set up our sound mixer and speakers so that when we curate on Thursday 6th, we would just need to connect a new mp3 player.
It took us quite a bit of time to set up our printed photos on the wall to align correctly with our projection. But with the help of Jeremiah and especially Phillip, we were able to get this done before the end of the day.
Overall, the set up was extremely stressful and tiring; having set up for others as well as my own work and having been one of the last students to leave, I was completely and utterly exhausted. But having kept a smile on my face, (throughout most of the day) I was able to stay calm during problems faced and other students being slightly difficult. My course communicated well with one another, (including students that were unable to help in London). I would like to thank Jeremiah for helping with mine and Dani's projector and fixing our sound on the day of the exhibition. I would definitely like to thank Phillip Osbourne for joining us all in setting up and for helping me with almost everything that I needed to do for my work.
THURSDAY 6TH FEBRUARY - THE PRIVATE VIEWING
THURSDAY 6TH FEBRUARY - THE PRIVATE VIEWING
Not only was this the private viewing for friends, family and colleagues, (meaning it would be the busiest evening) it was also the day that I decided to curate for the whole day. I know what you're thinking... I'm crazy to curate for the whole day plus having to stay and attend the private viewing. Yes, I was exhausted by the end, but my reason for this was so that I wouldn't have to make as many trips to and from London. You can understand the struggle of this if you are also a student.
I made my way to London during the early hours of the morning. Once Cristina, Dani and I had arrived at the gallery, we had a slight delay when having to collect the key to the Bargehouse. A few select students from Fine Art were the only ones whom were allowed to collect the key, (this we were unaware of) and unfortunately, were slightly late. Cristina was able to resolve this and managed to obtain the key. We began by turning on all of the work and scouring each and every floor, ensuring that everything was up and running correctly.
I spent the first few hours just monitoring the floors. Around 12:00, Cristina, Dani and I spent the next hour handing our flyers to the public. This was nerve-racking to begin with, but once people finally started accepting the flyers, it was fairly easy. You just had to be confident and smile. The trick was also to not approach anyone avoiding eye-contact - you could tell they definitely were not interested. It was also hard when, for example one individual was interested, but their other half would instantly shut us down. Regardless, I was able to successfully hand out a good amount of flyers. Would I do it again... Probably not. But it wasn't all that bad. The best idea was handing a bunch of flyers to some of the local businesses, which they kindly accepted and placed by their tills. I would say we were successful in this task.
The rest of the day we spent monitoring each floor in the Bargehouse. It was nice to hear some viewers comment on my peers work, which I happily reported back to the specific peer whom was thrilled to hear the positive feedback. I also met some of the students from the other courses. I enjoyed hearing about their work, as we don't always integrate with other courses.
Just before the Private Viewing, we rushed to ensure everything was in order and that the bar was fully stocked. We began slow, but eventually people were flooding into the Bargehouse. I greeted people kindly and reminded them of the other floors/rooms filled with work to view. I was great when my other peers / friends from other courses arrived to view our work. I heard much positive feedback from many individuals. It was also fun to be able to see some of the performances from students from Fine Art - as I had been hearing about them all day and was finally able to see. The best part was when my parents arrived and surprised me. They've seen my work in galleries and throughout my entire education in the arts but never in a large gallery type space. They loved my work, 😁; Posting it and sending it to all their friends and family.
Overall, the day went well and a lot of people enjoyed the work produced by us. The Private Viewing went better than expected and I was grateful to have been able to have been apart of such a fun/interesting/new experience. I had learnt a lot and obtained new/improved skills: The difficulty of setting up in a gallery style, curating skills, confidence. I enjoyed this and would love to be able to do something like this again.
The videos below shows mine and Dani's work at the Bargehouse.
I made my way to London during the early hours of the morning. Once Cristina, Dani and I had arrived at the gallery, we had a slight delay when having to collect the key to the Bargehouse. A few select students from Fine Art were the only ones whom were allowed to collect the key, (this we were unaware of) and unfortunately, were slightly late. Cristina was able to resolve this and managed to obtain the key. We began by turning on all of the work and scouring each and every floor, ensuring that everything was up and running correctly.I spent the first few hours just monitoring the floors. Around 12:00, Cristina, Dani and I spent the next hour handing our flyers to the public. This was nerve-racking to begin with, but once people finally started accepting the flyers, it was fairly easy. You just had to be confident and smile. The trick was also to not approach anyone avoiding eye-contact - you could tell they definitely were not interested. It was also hard when, for example one individual was interested, but their other half would instantly shut us down. Regardless, I was able to successfully hand out a good amount of flyers. Would I do it again... Probably not. But it wasn't all that bad. The best idea was handing a bunch of flyers to some of the local businesses, which they kindly accepted and placed by their tills. I would say we were successful in this task.
The rest of the day we spent monitoring each floor in the Bargehouse. It was nice to hear some viewers comment on my peers work, which I happily reported back to the specific peer whom was thrilled to hear the positive feedback. I also met some of the students from the other courses. I enjoyed hearing about their work, as we don't always integrate with other courses.
Just before the Private Viewing, we rushed to ensure everything was in order and that the bar was fully stocked. We began slow, but eventually people were flooding into the Bargehouse. I greeted people kindly and reminded them of the other floors/rooms filled with work to view. I was great when my other peers / friends from other courses arrived to view our work. I heard much positive feedback from many individuals. It was also fun to be able to see some of the performances from students from Fine Art - as I had been hearing about them all day and was finally able to see. The best part was when my parents arrived and surprised me. They've seen my work in galleries and throughout my entire education in the arts but never in a large gallery type space. They loved my work, 😁; Posting it and sending it to all their friends and family.
Overall, the day went well and a lot of people enjoyed the work produced by us. The Private Viewing went better than expected and I was grateful to have been able to have been apart of such a fun/interesting/new experience. I had learnt a lot and obtained new/improved skills: The difficulty of setting up in a gallery style, curating skills, confidence. I enjoyed this and would love to be able to do something like this again.
The videos below shows mine and Dani's work at the Bargehouse.
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