1w82 (2w32) exhibition chaos

There’s been alot of talk of the exhibition curation. lots of ideas, organisation and involvement between the fulltimers, part-timers and onliners.

i like this collaboration alot, although i think it would’ve been much better had we somehow had more interaction with them from the start of our course so that when it came down to the exhibition curation time; things were a bit more smoother.

not having communicated with the fulltimers or part-timers till the whole exhibition curating talk began, it was hard to scope out each other’s work and just the general characteristics of people. i think we could’ve all worked better had we had better knowledge of each other and each other’s capabilities.

it’s great that everyone is ready to get down to sorting out the curating but at the moment things are still up in the air. the main disputes seem to be about the press release and the floor plan and which spaces people want and how we’re going to arrange the whole swap with the showstuff as the BA students are also exhibiting in the same space.

i know it’s part of the course to give opinions and collaborate with the show build. but at times i feel it’s just easier for the majority to decide. we’re at a stage now where we cant be fighting each other over the littlest things. an ideal world would be people expressing their opinions and then others coming up with alternative options and both parties coming to a mutual agreement. but it’s hard in this environment as the onliners are practically curating the show blind as the college-based students are able to have a better grasp of the space and atmosphere the exhibition area brings.

but i’m sure everyone is trying their best and helping as much as possible. in these stressful times, it’s understandable that they’ll be disputes as pressures raise and everyone gets tense with trying to get their own work done as well as participate as much as possible with show builds so as to justify their involvement with that in the level criteria.

my only major contribution so far that i hold significant was probably the whole email trail about the press release dispute on the “decode” and the “young artists” reference. i don’t like causing arguments with people, nor do i like confrontation and therefore i try to find mutual ground from which to try to ease the situation from. there was a lot of heat going on with the whole reference and i felt i had to step in and give my voice.

i can see the idea behind the whole “decode” reference and the reasons behind why the press release was written in that way. at the same time i saw the frustration that others had with that term. i decided to offer my two-pence-worth opinion by trying to tell everyone to choose words or sentences that they’d like to include within the press release so that we could all choose some terms that we’d all be happy with. no one got back to me on that response but i did get feedback on my opinion that we shouldn’t talk up from what it actually was. i wanted our exhibition to demonstrate us as people. as artists. as students/workers. as graduates. nothing more, nothing less. we’ve all been honest and open with our work from the start so why talk up what we’re doing now?

with so many graduate shows going on during july, there’ll be a mass of exhibitions trying to grab attention. do we really need that? when you visit a gallery website do you really read the jargon that comes along with it or do you look at the imagery more and decide for yourself if you’d like to go see a certain piece of work?

me, personally, i ignore the reviews. i think art is subjective and if an image of a piece of work entices me enough; i’ll be there. i dont need no brian sewell or whoever to tell me their own connection with the piece. i want to feel the peice for myself and let it talk to me directly

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