I’ve started to put my action plan into action. I’ve been writing up the information that I need to put together to send to potential venues and have applied to 2 open calls, one for an ‘open’ and the other an open call for exhibition proposals.
I’ve been a bit frustrated since the show opened that I’ve not made any more work. It feels a bit like when I have an exhibition or experience like this that it drains all my ideas and I feel a bit trapped to make anything new. But yesterday I managed to sit down an throw a load of ideas down onto a sheet of paper, so I suppose that’s another kind of action plan – only of the more creative type, a list of currently unrealised ideas. Doing that made me feel better, reassuring that all of my ideas haven’t deserted me.
Following this week’s meeting with Louise I’ve got an action plan for getting the work under the noses of people who might like to tour the exhibition. I’ve found that my experience of writing these blogs is that if I write it here, then it holds me to doing it. That pressure coupled with the need to write my ACE evaluation by the end of September should spur me to GET ON WITH IT!
Action Plan
Enter individual works into targeted open submission exhibitions. Some of these are pay to enter, so I’ll be very selective with these with the aim of getting the work out to artist-led spaces who might not otherwise come across my work.
Tap into my existing networks. Get information about the work and the desire to tour the work to people within my existing network. See if they can suggest the show to other curators or consider including it in their own programming. Also Louise will do the same with her networks.
Create a Touring information pack. Louise is part of the Touring Exhibitions Group and often programmes exhibitions into her gallery from the database of exhibitions available. She has shown me touring information packs from other exhibitions and venues that provide a potential venue with all the information that they need to decide whether or not to programme the show. I’m going to use these as a template to bring all the information about my show together succinctly but informatively. This can then be listed by the Brindley as a touring exhibition on the TEG website.
Send the touring information pack to speculative contacts. Do some more research about potential venues that might be a good fit for the show and send the information speculatively to them.
Louise is the visual arts officer for Halton Borough Council and is based at the Brindley where my exhibition took place. You may have read her blog on here: https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/visual-arts-in-halton
Louise has supported my career over the past 11 years since I was a 3rd year degree student living in Halton and her friendship and professional support have been absolutely invaluable over the years. She has been a commissioner, colleague, curator and mentor and we have worked on a range of projects from residencies in early years settings, the annual Inspired Responses residencies in secondary schools, my regular teaching of Years Ahead over 50s art class, arts and health projects, Markmakers arts collective, group exhibitions and being someone to have a cup of tea and a chat about what art we’ve seen recently (along with our latest culinary explorations.)
I think that it’s been that we know each other and what each of us values so well that means that we’ve been able to work together seamlessly on my solo exhibition at the Brindley. I was reading the review of Spike Island’s ‘What to expect from a curator’ discussion and of the two types of curating that can happen – one being the bringing together of different artists or works and having a creative input into the outcome, the other being more of an assistant to the artist’s creative endeavours. I’d say that Louise does both depending on the exhibition, but in this exhibition she’s given me the space to develop the work as I like whilst being there with support, guidance and problem solving. Having this support and tacit understanding of each other has meant that I’ve been able to push the work to a scale that I’ve not tried before.
It’s also why as part of this exhibition, we’re working together to see where I can show the work next. I’ve got an action plan for that, but you can read that tomorrow.
The exhibition closed on Saturday, and as is always the case, the take down is over in a tiny fraction of the time it took to bring the whole thing together. Louise Hesketh, John (a technician at the Brindley) and I packed up what can be packed this morning, and with a bit of extra carrying help from my Mum and Dad, everything is now safely stored (most of it at the top of 38 stairs) at my studio in St Helens.
Time to put a bit more focus into part 2 of the plan, which is to make a plan to try and tour the exhibition, or the works within it. I’m meeting Louise, who is part of the Touring Exhibitions Group, to start making a plan of how to go about this, who we might approach, and what information we need to present to curators who might be interested. The decision to build this process into the work was because I’m all too aware how fleeting a single exhibition can be – this one feels like it was over in the blink of an eye, and if it’s possible to show the work elsewhere in the near future, then the work can reach a wider audience, and it feels as though the pressure might be more spread out – a bit like buying a slightly more expensive pair of shoes, but getting to wear them year after year.
More reports to follow once a plan is hatched. In the meantime, if you’re reading this and are interested in showing any of the work that was in the exhibition, get in touch.
I’ve been lucky of late to have had technicians to work with me to install some of my more ambitious projects, from town centre wardens to jet wash the streets of Warrington for the contemporary arts festival last year, Monty at Castlefield Gallery who created perfect tv stands for Watermark at The Drawing Project in February to Cathal who did the install of my 5m high tv wall and projections at the Bluecoat last July.
I asked Cathal if he would be able to work with me on this exhibition and fortunately he was available. We met and he worked out how best to build the plinths that I needed to hold the TV screens on a horizontal plane. They kind of look like a normal plinth, but needed various bits of engineering to get the tv to stay in place, interior shelves and a door to access the media player. He also worked with me to create the joining system for the large circles that are used in ‘Displaced Persons’ which fit together perfectly. It’s this attention to detail and ease of which each of my collaborators can do their part of the work that makes making new, more ambitious work easier.
