23rd October 2020
Introduction
When I lived in Kent, before my move to Lowestoft, I was the assistant co-ordinator for Centrepieces Mental health Arts Project which I helped to gain charity status.
We encouraged people suffering with their mental health illnesses to come to our studios at The Lodge, Hall Place and Gardens to participate in workshops which I also tutored within. It is while working at Centrepieces that I rekindled my love for photography and all things art.
Although I left Kent and moved many miles away, I was lucky enough to be asked to become a permanent artist with them who would still take part in their exhibitions and Zoom workshops.
The theme for this years exhibition was lockdown and the work we produced within it. ‘Lockdown Art Exhibition 2020’ saw me show work that I had created during Assignment 5 for this course and sculptures that I made to accompany the photographic images.
The following images show the team that I was working with setting up the exhibition and some of the work that was for show.
Concepts in Lockdown
I called my series of work ‘Concepts in Lockdown LIFE’S A GLITCH’ and my artists blurb to accompany the series can be seen below.
For the exhibition I thought about different ways to present my images rather than just the usual, print and frame. Although I have a number of ways in which I want the Assignment 5 images to be presented next year for my solo exhibition, for this one I took the acrylic and instant photograph route.
Acrylic Blocks
For the acrylic images I had them produced at one of my online printing companies, this time I used ‘My Picture UK’ my-picture.co.uk and I chose their 20×15 cm size.
Acrylic Photo Block – Memories You Can Touch
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Acrylic Block with Crystal-Clear Photo Display
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My Picture UK my-picture.co.uk
The reason I had chosen the acrylic block format was because the exhibition this year was low on sculpture due to the lockdown and Covid-19 keeping everyone away from the studios. Due to this I decided that I would produce all of my work so that it would be able to be displayed on plinths, the acrylic blocks are free standing and suited my needs well, as I always like to try different ways of presenting my work.
To accompany the acrylic blocks I printed out some of my images on my FujiFilm Square Printer which produces Polaroid style prints.
Fujifilm Instax Square Prints
Once the images were printed I had to think of a different way to show them so that they stood up. I decided to buy some acrylic block place holders cheap from China. On their arrival the acrylic was quite stained with bits floating inside it so I painted the blocks black. Each tiny block has a peg on them to holder the images and they stood up well. To emphasise the images I bought some glass on which to stand the blocks so that they were reflected to play on the concept of glitch.
I also produced two pieces of sculpture to accompany the photographs both of which were also glitches of myself. The first sculpture ‘Life’s A Glitch’, is based on the sliding glitch and shows the mask that I wear slipping off to the left twice. This is accompanied by lines and cuts to represent other types of glitching. Since the sculpture is three-dimensional we get to see the glitches in layers. By adding a textured spray to the completed paper-maché piece I was able to obtain the stippled effect that the interference on video produces.
The second sculpture was constructed from Modroc which is a plaster bandage which once wet can be shaped and layered according to ones needs. For my sculpture I cast my face with the Modroc by building up rough layers until I gained the desired effect that I was wanting. The effect that I wanted to achieve was rough edges and texture. The reason for the different textures was to produce a glitching effect where the fibres of the bandage looked as though they were broken lines amongst the smoothness of the correct form.
Once my face had dried and had been given a couple of coats of acrylic paint I added twisted coloured wire to it. The wires were bright colours as to match those seen in my anxiety photograph and they travel across the face from right to left and formed a cage around the face. Rather than having the wires attached to the surface of the face I left them gliding over the negative space so that yet again the three-dimensional aspect of these glitches were emphasised.
To break the glitch theme up on the plinths I also created a few pattern acrylic blocks both in black and white and in colour. These patterns were designed by myself in an iPad app. I decided on patterns that weren’t random lines like the glitches were, they were mathematical in shape and pleasing to the eye. By breaking up the series and placing them in two separate areas it gave the viewer time to take in the images, pause and move onto the next piece of work. I feel if I had presented just the glitch work it would be quite monotonous and quite a lot to take in on the spot.
The below image shows the pattern blocks together before being arranges on two separate plinths with the acrylic glitch self-portraits.
Conclusion
The images that I had used for the acrylic blocks for this exhibition were not ‘the best’ that I had produced for Assignment 5 but they still came together as a series in exhibition well. I believe this is because they were not just prints that were framed but a combination of different ways of presenting photographic images which creates an extra interest.
Using contrasting patterns blocks also worked well. Perhaps I could try making acrylic blocks that would contain actual glitch patterns with out any actual image. I have already designed some when I was experimenting with glitch making so this is definitely something I can trial before exhibition next year.
Another area that I could think about is the sizing of the acrylic blocks. they come in various dimensions. For this exhibition I just used the 20x15cm format but now I know that images work well presented in these blocks I would like to experiment with purchasing different sizes to exhibit together which would provide variety to gain the viewers interest.
Over all I have to say that the verbal feedback has been very positive for my work. I have had interest in that people want to purchase my work but unfortunately due to the fact that 45% of my pricing goes to Centrepieces and Hall Place between them my prices have risen accordingly. If I were to have my solo exhibition as planned with Centrepieces then the commission is a very low 20% which means my prices will drop accordingly and they will be more affordable for the general public to purchase.
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