In the gallery I have three walls. Two in a wide corridor. The third prominently at top of the stairs.
My grid of 9 ‘Wahol tributes ‘ will be there.
Market produce
They will have to be crisp and regular. The plan is to hang them with magnets off flat headed nails. The nails will be 15mm off the wall giving a floating experience
Magnets on nails, testing their strength,a template to ensure a crisp grid
I tested the tiny (8mm) magnets and they hold a sheet of heavy A1 cartridge paper.
My concern is that my lower sheets are vulnerable to movement so have ordered a set of stringer larger magnets. I need 36!
The prints are framed and will look good in a blank white wall
The third wall is problematic , I have 8 large paintings and drawings
A dado of banana boxes. Possibly a background of blue tarp. This may detract from the paintings,but it gives a market feel to the wall. Installation may be a problem
I have also made a set of tin men, all cut and folded from waste steel oil cans. They may be included in the show, I worry though that a/ they detract from the market b/ they are pretty rough
I will leave it to my fellow students to have a final say
not sure if the box wall paper will overwhelm the prints, I decided to use it for the bright pastel paintings and charcoal whicj will leave the prints for the opposite wall. some of the darkly inked prints do work. It certainly needs clever layout. Very nervous. I continue to draw and photograph whilst searching for Chiquita boxes
The presentation went fairly well I sent five previous minutes lecturing on art history which then put me off my next ten minutes.
I have committed myself to a gallery wall representing banana boxes, the building blocks of the market
I realized that fill a space 2.4 m by 3.2 I would need to collect 50 boxes and transport them. So undoing the lids gives a .4 by 180 strip. Much more manageable. But a daily search provides 1 or 2 of the 15 I needI have found a treasure trove of boxesBut I continue to plan on a design exclusively Chiquita boxes, but I may have to resort to a patchwork of various products
i have been visiting, photographing and drawing in the market for nearly two months. I started with little idea of what my outcome would be, whether I had the skill to produce anything more than a bundle of sketches, hurried unfinished drawings
I have produced work that I am proud of and will continue for the next weeks before the show finessing some of my drawings, finishing them and making them presentable.
I have been looking to see if I could catch any of the essence of the market, but of course its impossible, an encyclopedia would not be suffcient to captrue the subtlities of such a place. An emil Zola or Dickens may captrure some of the characters and stroies, a cartier Bresson would capture soe of the subtle realtionships, between stall holders and subjects.
I gave a print I had made of Jay a fishmonger to him,for jay, I belive it was a shock to understand that he had been seen, that someone had noticed him in the chaotic mix of the market.
I tried bery hard to show some of the colour and nuttiness of the market wares.
my regrets are my failure to capture the interplay between peopel, I hope to improve my drawing skills, I have found some kind of rhythm but I still lack in capturing any subtlety. I leave this project with a profound gratitude to the market workers, some of whom I have got to know well, all of whom made me welcome
it slowly came to the whole class that the gallery show is simply not a piece of end of turn vanity and fun but a serious point where the result of our years study is accessed. It took me some time to realise this and evntually as it dawned on me I had to start to conceive how to show off my work
I belive that ‘ An Observer in Shepherds Bush Market’ is a valid and solid poiece of work that meets all the Unit 4 criteria in reserarch, conception, study, application, reflection, problem solving.
Now…… to work out how to display ithe work.
Morley Gallery is an interesting space, a well lit upstairs room divided into three sections lit by daylight with large windows, a wide corridor, and a spacious down stairs rooms and a small atrium , and a narrow corridor with one wall of hanging space.
I have the upstairs. corridor.
It is perfect for me, I will have my two long panoramas along one wall with some other prints, facing it I was planning to make an inset wall of banana boxes
I realise in the 230 m by 3.20 space, I would need 50 banana boxes, they would also be difficult to stack safely , securing them to the wall would be a problem, and transporting them from Shepherds Busha terrible and expensive effort. I realise by flattening the lids I get a strip of banana box 34 x 180, ten boxes will fill a space 2.4 m by 1.8. suffcient to make a ‘ wallpaper’ to provide a back drop to my pastels and prints
here is a mock up, the paintings and prints will be more carefully curated.
I had considered making an ‘altre’ to the market with plaster covered fabrics, I had also discussed producing T shirts that could be sold in the show. I was thankfully persuaded that it was all too much and my work could stand as it is.
I also have one large wall opposite Diana’s floral exhibit where I hope to hang my nine coloured pastes, a tribute to the range of goods in the market. A shameless tribute to Warhol, especially as the pastels give an impression of silk screened prints
They are nine A2 sheets so will cover a space 1.26 m wide and 2.55 m high. I may have to loose the borders to give me space.
Currently the two panorama prints are being framed, for the rest of the prints and paintings I will be m ounteing them on fibre board.
lessons learnt;
Think of the exhibition space carefully, especially if you produce anything os any size. .
Think of available and artificial light,
Think of how to present works
Think of the cost and time taken in framing works
I will have probably eight prints and an A1 pastel, and three A2 paitnings, and two pastels on 4mm ply, 1.4 x 0.85m. I may have to lean them on the floor
Nicholas Turner Morley Art Foundation 