I have had my first meeting with the two other artists who will be showing work, Andrew Train (https://andrewtrainart.wordpress.com) and Aaron Hughes (https://www.facebook.com/AaronHughesArtist) to discuss there thoughts on a unifies theme for the exhibition. I suggested an artists response to modern day, post conflict Northern Ireland, it was agreed that it is a subject that very few people have approached, mainly I would imagine due to the sensitivity over the fragile political climate. I have the option of inviting two more artist that have dealt with a similar subject matter either in their current practice or in the past.
Whilst we are in effect all co curating the show It will be my responsibility to direct the individual artists and to ensure promotional material will be made and delivered as well as organising the fitting of the work in the lead up to the exhibition.
I have actually just asked a third exhibitor, artist and designer Gareth Martin (http://bpw.org.uk/gallery/gareth-martin) and have had him confirm whilst writing. Thats four artists confirmed.
The next thing is to start promoting but in order to do this we need a name. I have suggested
‘So it is…. An artist response to Contemporary Northern Irish Culture’ This is based on the well know local vernacular ‘so it is’ which if you are from or have ever visited NI you will understand straight away, it is a sentence usually The BBC’s guide to Northern Irish slang describes it as an ‘Emphatic reiteration of a statement, so it is. An example would be ‘ thats nice, so it is’ or ‘it looks like its gonna rain so it is’.
The first step of the exhibition promotion will be on Facebook, its a tried and tested format and how most locals will hear about events. This will be out no later than the 5th June, but preferably sooner potentially by the beginning of that week. I will start work on designing the Poster for online and physical distribution.
Regarding the actual work to be shown I have the above selection finished with another 4 drawn out ready to paint. I have been thinking about the way they will be displayed in the gallery, either in a line as you enter or I was thinking displayed as though as part of a criminal investigation board, CSI style. This however may be a little jarring, given the lack of a link between the subject matter and a crime investigation. In fact now that I have written that idea down it defiantly doesn’t work. I will write up a separate investigation into the display of the paintings anyway.
I will go down to studio 11 to take pictures next week and to see if anything needs fixed and repainted, this way I have something to document and I will then have a visual aid to plan the exhibition from my studio.
So the main things to do now for next week are,
- Finalise exhibition title
- Begin online promotion
- Organise another meeting, check up on artists progress to ensure work is actually there.
- Visit Studio 11 to take pictures
- Continue paintings
- More Investigation into curating, begin planing progress into displaying individual art pieces and groups of works both 3d and 2d.
Daniel Berry Art 