Reflection

I think as a group we were all fairly pleased with our exhibition, but we were mainly thinking about it in the context of a university project, and competing with other exhibitions that were also created by first years. We need to think more about how successful our exhibition was in a professional context: does it compete with other Birmingham galleries for example? I don't think we could honestly say that our exhibition was as high enough standard to compete with professionally curated exhibitions. Firstly, our biggest problem was that we chose an outside courtyard space within University grounds, but with it being a Grade 1 listed building we were really restricted in how we could display work. We couldn't really use the walls at all, and any ideas we had with more creative ways to hang work were later thrown out due to health and safety. We also didn't really have enough work to fill the space, we'd chosen quite a large space. Nearer the exhibition date we encountered some problems with the artists such as Matt destroying 2 large-scale paintings we were planning to show, and Niall last-minute telling us he didn't want to display work that he originally said he would. We tried to get in touch with another first year student who created large billboards which tied in with our theme and also thought would help fill up the space, but couldn't get in touch with him/ find him anywhere because he hadn't been into uni for weeks. 


The idea of our exhibition being outside I think was successful - as a group we tended to feel that a 'white cube' space can be quite intimidating, almost like a library in that you feel like you have to be quiet and act in a certain way. The outside space was working around the idea of an exhibition that was really accessible to all, rather than white cube spaces where maybe only a certain type of people from the public go. With our theme being 'anarchy' we really didn't think the idea of a white gallery space was appropriate, with the idea of destruction or protest. Obviously our exhibition was flawed in that it wasn't fully accessible to the public anyway, with it being inside a University space where there are no public passing through. If we could have chosen anywhere in Birmingham to create an exhibition we all thought an outside space in Digbeth could have been a good idea - as it's quite industrial and there's an up-and-coming art scene starting to happen there.


Also, Mona mentioned to us about where being an artist stops and where being a curator begins. Does what curators do completely change the artwork? With one of Amy's pieces we displayed it under a plastic sheet that was covered in rainwater, which she liked the idea of. But we also left leaves on the plastic that she wanted to remove, so in a way we were then changing her art or how people see it. 






Kiri Smart