Rationale

During this project of putting this exhibition on I have learnt allot. We put ourselves into four groups marketing, fundraising, curators and logistics. Each group had their own job to do to put the exhibition on. Across all the groups I think that we have had a problem with attendance and getting the whole group to help put the exhibition on. Money has been a bit of an issue getting enough for everything we need for the show. Each group had to deal with their chosen group then also coincide that with communicating with the other groups which can be difficult.

The marketing group which I am in have worked very hard. We have overcome many obstacles such as finding a company to sponsor us and give us posters, which we managed. Also getting the flyer's prepared by screen printing them, which we got one person to do them all as they had got a momentum going the rest of us mixed inks and removed the wet flyer's and replaced with a new flyer. Our group mainly worked well as a whole but found it hard to get in touch with some members.

Logistics and curators worked well together in getting the floor plans and a theme together to then place peoples work in certain spaces so they would fit. They created a theme that would enable us to split the group up into each room with it flowing.

Fundraising held several events including raffles, games and stalls to help pay for the things we needed for the show. A few people covered the cost for some of the stuff they ordered like I paid for the website and Laura paid for some of the luggage tags. Fundraising went off into little groups to organise a few events.

Me and Laura have worked in collaboration for the piece we are putting into the show. We have had to deeply consider packing and transporting the piece into the van. We have made carriers to help carry them and are wrapping them in bubble wrap and cardboard. We cut down our final piece to fit in the space we have and have negotiated with people around us about lighting, so all is ready to install.

Overall this project has been very difficult but a great experience. It is very hard to work with 44people all with different views, personalities and work, but I feel we have managed it. We have the wine, the work, the people the promotion to put this show on and it is all in place, ready for the show now. Obviously problems may occur but we have arranged between us invigilators to watch the space.

The blog process has been long. I'm not sure whether a blog is for me, I prefer a note book I don't always use the Internet so a note book is more practical for me. Websites always have some faults with them this website is no exception, so a note book is a more consistent way to think through my thought processes and put down shows I have been to.The good thing about putting my thoughts on here is that my spelling isn't great which means I can check it on here section by section so when I go back I can still remember what I've put.

Packaging

Tomorrow we are packing are pieces up to go to the space.



We will be filling the negative space with cardboard and bubble wrap. The wrapping the



whole thing in bubble wrap then wrapping cardboard round.



Then putting them on the wooden carriers and then tieing them on with rope to the board,



to make it secure to carry into the van.



4 people can now carry our pieces because of the 4 handles.

Name of Work

Me and Laura have been thinking about what to call our piece.

It took us a long time but finally came up with Not Quite.

We came up with this because when ever we try to describe our pieces we always start

with well there not quite...

So we thought why no call the final piece Not Quite we think it fits quite well with the piece

as we don't want to give away too much what our piece is about, and that they are not

quite here they are in between reality and the dream world.

Final Piece

Cat Support

The cats due to all the moving about we have had to do with them the bottom of them had started to crumble away. A repair job was needed.

We had to lay them on a cushion and and rip the cracked plaster off.And use plaster mixed with glue and water and soak the plaster with a glue and water solution. And pack the bottom with mod rock to support it. We did this then a week later we stood them up to see if they would be ok for the show. The bottom is now very strong but the cats slightly lean back unfortunately but there isn't allot we can do about that but they will be fine in the show they are allot safer now.

Questions we asked our selves during the project

Materials?
Me and Laura ended up using plaster with a support structure underneath. We chose plaster because after using wax, home made paper, clay and plaster we decided that the plaster had more of a raw quality to it. And could be manipulated wet or dry it gave us freedom to achieve what we wanted but still give us that rawness like they had been pulled out of our heads.




Paint them?
Everyone who saw our pieces asked are you going to paint them? That started us thinking shall we paint them. The main reason we was thinking about it was that plaster tarnishes so they wont be perfectly white anymore. But we decided that will change them painting them, they won't be plaster anymore with that rawness they will be painted plaster.


Carriers?
We decided to make carriers to help carry our pieces and enable 4 to carry them to distribute the weight. We had to use 18mm MDF for the carriers any thinner and it would snap. But this pushed the cost up but it had to be one me and Laura split everything in half.




Cost?
The cost of the project has been expensive. The 5 sculptures has cost me and Laura £42 for materials. Then it cost £22 for the MDF so all in all £64 plus lights etc on top. Luckily we split it otherwise I couldn't have afforded it by my self.


How many sculptures to make?
We originally wanted to make 8 sculptures. But due to cost and the amount of space in the exhibition we were unable to make 8. We thought 3 wasn't enough but 6 was too many so we agreed on 5. Looking at the 5 we made we really didn't like one of them and decided it wasn't going to be in the show so now we are having 4 which after going to lighting studio we really like.


Lights?
We knew we didn't want normal electric lighting. So we brought touch lights and spot lights. We didn't like the touch lights they had a blue tinge to them which we didn't like. So we went with the spot lights with a clear bulb. One in front of each sculpture was too much but one in the middle was perfect.


Size?
We wanted our pieces to have a real impact when you enter the room. We wanted them to be quite big. Which we managed to achieve. They are mainly waist height which will make the viewer quite uncomfortable.

Gallery Of Final Piece

This is three of our pieces we need to think about moving. We are thinking a structure type thing made out of MDF. Me and Laura drew up plans for the stretches and took them to the wood workshop Matt helped us and we got them cut out on the laser cutter. We now can tie our work to the stretcher so 4 people can carry them out using the handles.


Lighting in very important with out piece and how we display it. We are not putting them on plinths it changes how they look and what they represent. We want the lighting to be quite dim with spot lights highlighting the bits we want so they look like they are coming out of the dark. We had 2 sessions in the lighting studio to plan how we want the lights.

We felt this was too much light focused on the front of the piece.


We felt this was allot better looks creepy like it's coming out of the dark which is what we wanted.


Same with this one perfect light.

Perfect lighting just what we wanted.

This is what we ended up doing instead of having one light in front of each sculpture we put one in the middle it gives off enough light for what we want. We like that you can see the wire fits with the piece and the space we are in with bare walls and wires. But we will be taping the wire to the floor and putting tape round the edges of the sculptures for the audiences safety.


This was when we had one in front of each sculpture it was too much and we didn't like the colour of the extension lead so we are now using a white one to match the colour of the sculptures.

We liked how this looked with the wires but not the colour of the extension lead we want a white one.

We like the tone of the photograph dark and mysterious, like there stepping into reality.

We tried them in a line before the circle but we thought a circle might work better as we want sure about the line and we do prefer the circle. Makes you feel uncomfortable like dreams so and fits more with what we want to achieve.

Now and Then and April Fools

Opening night was on the same night as the April Fools event in the neighbouring shop units.

We are using the white pen on the wall after seeing this. It works very well and stands out and is easy to read. It draws your eye in.

During the event this lady drew on the window. But after going back now she finished it doesn't stand out like the white pen because of the glare on the window. This was just a window display so no health and safety issues.

While the opening was happening this man was doing a sand sculpture in the window we couldn't go in as it wouldn't have been safe with water everywhere and tools. But it was so interesting watching him. The only problem with all these pieces in the window was the glare because of the lights in the shopping centre.

They had written the April fools sign on the corner panel of the shop uni as there the only bits you can see walking down towards the show.

The white text stands out very well. Very eye catching.

All of these pieces were A3 poster size. Mounted in the far shopping unit. They all followed the theme of April fools. I love these images they both have a humour about them. You viewed these images from the window.

Could see all the wires through the window. For the video's on the TV. The whole exhibition works well as a whole.