Exhibtion Theory and Practice

Overall the exhibition did come together and everyone felt like they had been ambitions with the work they installed. There was a definite sense of interaction between all of our work as well. I think the exhibition felt very vivid as well as ambitious. Our title ‘Translation. Transition’ helped to contextualise our exhibit because of the way all our work engaged with one another’s (for example Matt and my overlapping sound pieces), as well as how the viewer would interact and feel more involved with the exhibition due to the array of media and context (film, performance, photography, sculpture, etc.) and of course exhibiting work that was produced overseas. Having the opportunity to get together with artists from other pathways and gain an understanding of the way they work and how they construct and consider space was all very interesting to observe too, this was as interesting itself as the exhibition for me. It was so valuable to watch how people would engage with materials and space, I think this is what makes being part of an institution and having a studio space surrounded by other creative minds such a golden experience!

Thinking about the opening of the exhibition now I wish I had considered putting a camera towards the audience to get an idea of how they were reacting to something I had viewed so much as exotic. I wonder how it being projected in this space also alters how it is viewed; is it now ‘art’ only because it is viewed in the context of an exhibition space on white walls? People at art school would be so familiar with projections, so would the technology the film is passed through narrowing the viewers gaze and diluting the possibility of it being viewed as exotic? I tried placing material objects in the eye of the viewer also to extend the gaze further as they are now able to engage with something more material and perhaps ‘exotic’ to them.

What is exotic to me, then captured through my eyes, through my camera lens then played back through (familiar to many) projection technology, in surrounding familiar (yet completely disjointed to the video) surroundings and then understood through someone else’s gaze who has had a whole different set of experiences, has different cultural values and I’m sure a completely different idea f what is exotic.