Placement day 3

Monday 18th February 20197

10.00 am- 3.00 pm

After a good relaxing weekend, it was time to get back to work! Just before we started, I wanted to fully understand what Charlotte's work was exploring. When I first began my placement, I had a vague idea of what it was about but I wanted to understand what she was going for and what the elements she chose symbolized.  

Set in Sediment explores the act of finding and being immerse in Stoke-on-Trent. Its history and culture discarded in the ground - within the ceramic pieces and pottery. The act of scavenging, finding ceramic, clay and their relationship with the ground. Therapeutic process of removing clay from soil. What is Stoke's future? Constant mention of potteries and possible hindrance from moving forward. Bollards representing the blockage to a potential destination, the films exploring the act of searching. The value of objects - adding meaning to life? Sense of home? Are the of any use? How do we use them? Searching methods. Becoming the surrounding with the costume choice, a play with camouflage and standing out. 

Charlotte's work is quite interesting, I am mesmerized by her journey through her practice and how the individual pieces merge into one another becoming a cohesive and beautiful body of work. Whenever I make work, I always try to give it a purpose before its even completed. Whereas, within my observation, Charlotte enjoys the process of making and allows the material to form a language amongst each other. I would like to apply this method of working into my own practice. Maybe it would allow me to be less strict and perhaps more flexible.

Today's session was about positioning the work in the gallery space. Up first, the bollards! After crafting and drying the bollards in her studio, Charlotte, Glen and myself transported them across to the front room. They were quite heavy although the inside was all polystyrene!

The bollards were made by stacking some polystyrene disks, a mould of a plate made out of clay which was placed on top and coated with a mixture of gravel and concrete. (Ingenious! never would've thought of that myself)  She made a few of them in different sizes.

The placement of the bollards had to be strategic; taking in consideration the audience being able to walk through the space, prevention of them being knocked over and wheelchair accessible (85 cm gap).
Having a row of bollards as seen in the street, was a placement choice towards the entrance and Charlotte was thinking the amount of bollard that were suitable in that specific area. Four felt quite busy so she decided to go with three.

Bollards in space

Possible placement of cloth and projection

Charlotte had to think about the fabric and how she wanted it to be hanged. She had a predicament as she would have preferred the fabric to be wide like the screen. But due to the fact that the fabric shop is primarily for curtains and dress making, the limited width was 1 metre. We then made our way to the fabric shop and purchased the fabric that was about 4 metres long and 1 metre wide. Back at Airspace, like we feared, the cloth did not do the short film justice, as it had to be projected quite small in order to fit on the cloth. Perspective was key, was it a good move to project on the long cloth mirroring the verticality of the bollards? I could tell by Charlotte's face that she did not like the appearance, neither did I! I thought that having the projection quite wide and landscape created a juxtaposition of portrait and landscape of the shapes in the space, it also seemed like it was a window to nature.

Projection on portrait cloth

In terms of film, Charlotte also had a couple of TVs that she wanted to fit in the space. The table that was originally in the corner was then removed by Glen, to create more space for the TV, as well as a neat presentation of the gallery space. For the TVs, Charlotte did not want them to face each other and not to face straight ahead. So we played with angles which would be visible by the viewer as soon as they walk in.

Positioning TVs into space

The lighting was another factor to consider, as it was important to find a balance of the space being light enough for the bollards to be seen and dark enough for the screen to be seen. Alternatively for the screen to be seen, Glen suggested to buy some projector paint (absolute white), which would make the resolution of the projection clearer. I did not know that such thing existed so now I know that paint can definitely make a difference. In the space, Glen felt that something was missing. Since Charlotte's work talks about journey, he thought that including a path of gravel would emphasize that idea.

Throughout this placement session, I did not know that there would be so much to take in consideration, curatorially. How everything that is seen matters and to question the necessity of a specific material in the space. Even the smallest movement, the swapping of an object made a difference. The eye level, up and down motion while navigating through the space. I just wished that while these discussions were taking place I spoke more about my opinions, but due to my shyness and insecurities my inclusion wasn't as good as I would've liked.

To end the session Glen mentioned that when it comes to being an artist, it is important to take some time off the work. This then allows the eye to adjust, the time away would point out what was not noticed previously. I need to do more of these reflective breaks, to improve my performance as well as preventing me from going insane!