Installation
So you’ve secured a place to show some work. How might you go about installing and displaying it? For the purposes of this article I’ve assumed that you’re putting together a solo show. If you’re contributing to a group show you may have a lot less control, but many of the points still apply. Each venue is different, and much will depend on the type of work you make, but a few general points should help take some of the stress out of the experience. Much of what follows is designed to make it clear where various obligations lie which should allow you to focus on your main concern: making the best show you can.
If at all possible, visit the space ahead of installation and do some measuring. Work out a floor plan or ask if there’s one already available. Mark the position of electrical sockets, lighting and so on. Find out how you can attach things to the wall. Will you need drills, masonry bits, and so on? What sort of plinths or display cases can the venue supply? Don’t assume that stuff you’ve previously seen at the venue will be available for you. Will there be someone to help you? Be prepared to listen to – and take advice from – anyone who has experience of the venue. This might be staff, but also other artists. When you talk to the venue, it’s worth asking what happens if you sell anything. What percentage does the venue take? You may also want to talk about insurance. If you’re a subscriber to Artists’ Newsletter/AIR you’ll be covered for £5m public liability insurance. If there’s going to be a private view, talk about who pays for what. Don’t assume anything as everyone does it differently.
Agree on a timetable with the venue. Find out exactly when can you install and what the uninstallation procedures are. Is there a quick turnaround? You may not have long to put work up and you might have to remove your work quickly. Never assume that the process will be easy or that it won’t take long. Build in time to prepare walls, pop out for rawlplugs, sweep floors, and so on.
Find out if the show will be properly invigilated. If not, think hard about how you might secure work, especially if you’re using laptops, projectors and so on. I recommend doing some invigilation yourself as you’ll be able to talk to visitors about your work and you will inevitably learn something. People like talking to the artist.
Will you be required to do any marketing, or will that be taken care of?What will the gallery need in terms of a statement and image? I’ll cover writing a press release in a forthcoming blogpost, but promotional work can be hard and it’s well worth finding out what the gallery will do.
Assuming that you’ve liaised effectively with the venue and you’re happy with the basic arrangements, what needs to be done?
A huge generalisation: less is more. Unless you deliberately want to overwhelm your audience with a dense collection of work, think hard about what to include, which means excluding stuff. Be prepared to bring stuff home that you thought you’d hang. Make sure the work can breathe and that people can see it properly; think about space and lighting and about discrete ways of fixing works to walls, floors, and ceilings. Mirror plates are okay on large framed works, but look clumsy on small works. For a few years now, there’s been a trend for using bulldog clips to hang unframed drawings and photographs. It looked cool for a while but is a bit tired now, I think. When going round shows, take note of how other people have solved these problems. Sound and video works can disrupt whole shows if handled badly. Make sure the noise is controlled, for example, with headphones and doesn’t spill out to spoil other works. If you have something on a short loop, don’t put it right next to the invigilation desk. Ever.
Almost every show I’ve been involved in — even the most meticulously planned ones — have been rejigged during installation. Get used to the idea that part of the show will need to be taken down and rehung as part of the process.
Making art can take a long time and rushing its installation is a shame. Installing isn’t easy, and it’s important to give yourself time to do your work justice. A good rule of thumb is that everything should look deliberate. A friend always took an hour to have a coffee in the space before hanging anything. It’s good advice. Take your time to move things around and don’t rush.
Images: OCA MA show The Nine at Bank Street Arts
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I should say that this follows on from my post about Writing Proposals: http://weareoca.com/fine_art/writing-proposals/
I was very interested reading this article as the images shown are the ones from the MA show The Nine of which I was proud to be involved in and I thought I would share my experience from that show, and what I have learnt. Firstly I have to point out that I was unable to go to the gallery in question before the installation date due to work pressures and financial reasons. We did have a floor plan and dimensions and images to work with. However during that last year of the MA I am going to honestly admit I did not think about the show as a priority when I was creating the work because the creation of the work and the context was the force behind the work, I know from experience that I would have to use mirror plates for the work this is usually a given in most galleries, I had an idea of the wall space I had been allocated and I knew that I would be sharing the space….
Due to the many meetings that where held for the exhibition I knew what percentage the venue took and all of the artists involved had sorted insurance regarding public liability insurance. The private view had already been sorted this I have to add was due to the fact the gallery were so helpful and communication was relatively easy and a timetable had been agreed very early on, so all in all I felt that this would be a interesting vibrant but as stress-less an instillation could be with nine artists and tutors and lots of help.
So I turned up at The Bank Street Gallery after being rescued by one of the artists involved in the show from the motorway after breaking down on the Junction just before turning off, I had packed the work so securely that I knew there would be no damage to the work, sadly the camera was not so securely held and ended up badly damaged, so first bit of advice make sure that all equipment is carefully packed limiting any damage!
So during the making process I had a pretty clear idea of what pieces I wanted in the exhibition… so every piece was unpacked and immediately I realised that the work I wanted to show and felt sure would lend themselves to a cohesive exhibition of my work, wasn’t going to be the case, some of the pieces just clashed with the artist’s work that I was sharing the room with, and imagining how the work will fit compared to the reality… so my next bit of advice is be prepared to completely rethink and be very open to take any advice offered from other artist’s and staff and tutor’s and take that advice on board because this show is your showcase of hours and hours of bloody hard work and you as the artist wants to be proud of what you have achieved!!
Do research on current shows see how work is hung and lighted and how you produce your catalogue all these things are there to showcase your work as an artist and your skill.
Be prepared for uneven, overly plastered walls don’t ever assume all walls will be smooth and easy to hang work from.
Be prepared to spend a fortune of rawplugs and paint and sticky things and all manner of things that you would never ever think you will need to put together a show.
Be prepared to being lost or maybe feelings of being excluded from the group, it isn’t you or the others involved but the tension of the moment, remembering this will help when you feel overwhelmed, and always have someone you can talk to not involved, this really helped me during this week I spent everyday having half an hour wandering the streets talking to a friend who kept me grounded and helped me release the pressure of days during setting up the show.
Be prepared to clean floors and toilets and everything else imaginable..!
The work that I exhibited for this show there was only two pieces that I thought would go into the final show, in fact one of the pieces I had never considered and the stretcher was warped and took bending, banging shoving bits of wood in from the framemaker next door, use all resources!!! And painting the edges mm by mm until the piece looked vaguely straight…
Be prepared for change and take your time and do drink alcohol at the appropriate times, respect your fellow artists and tutors and all involved and appreciate that time it will never be repeated, Remember the laughter not the tears and be proud of the achievement that all involved have helped to create. I am forever grateful for all the help and friendship and support that was shown that resulted in an incredible diverse show that I am very proud to be part of.
Jo Keeley
Thanks for this Jo. It opens up something that I didn’t mention: how draining and emotional it can be to stage a show of work. I hope that I made it clear that each experience is likely to be different and the one you went through had some particular issues. Not being able to check out the space, living remotely from the gallery (meaning that you can’t pop home for that piece you forgot), along with it being a group show based on a co-operative curatorial approach AND it being an exam must have made it very stressful. It’s a testament to you and to THE NINE that it was such a good show.
I started to write the piece think about installation strategies, but that got watered down a bit. I do think that they’re important but the general points about being clear about obligations and timetabling are more universally applicable. I hoped that my piece would kick start a conversation about experiences people have had – good and bad.