showdownatthegallery

The show is down. Just 40 mins from the first unpicking to leaving an empty gallery and closing the door behind me. The latest exhibition for unpicking and rebinding in the gallery attached to Norwich University of the Arts was a great success and some more. 472 people visited the space in one day and there were some wonderful comments and conversations had. The visibility within the University was good for the textile course and within a wider context the many links that I have made within the organisations witnin the city of Norwich.  There are many new starting points to chase up. The final talk to the post graduate students outlined the project focusing on how to build a project and the many pitfalls associated with that.

Some images from the hang - 

showonshow

The show is up at Norwich Gallery. The work was hung in 4 hours and looks good. Its interesting to see the work within the white walls of a gallery after the domestic space, if rather grand of Abbotts Hall at the Museum of East Anglian Life or the municipal functionality and clutter of the record offices and museums the work has been shown in. I was reminded of the exhibition and subsequent article written by Susan Vogel called Vogel’s net where the same objects were presented within different situations or contexts, art gallery, museum, diorama. With each viewing the context overwhelmed the objects and the viewers reading of them was framed by the environment. 

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/undergraduate/modules/hi174/groupc/journal_of_material_culture-1996-gell-15-38.pdf

The private view was really busy with many positive and supportive comments. It was really nice to see so many friendly faces – thank you to all of you who turned up, your support was greatly appreciated.  

I set up a situation where work was exchanged for a recommendation – the work in question was a set of prints that I have shown in 4 places and felt that I had learnt all I need from them – they will be going to good homes and I will follow up the recommendations and be enriched by them, everybody wins.

returningtothestartingpoint

There is a small display of some of the background to unpicking and rebinding in the library at the Norwich University of the Arts Library. It includes textual research, notebooks and some models. The books from the collection at NUA are from across a broad range of subjects including architecture, fashion, design and fine art. Traditional smocking is included as the starting point for the project. It supports the one day exhibition in the gallery next week.