Karst, a fairly new gallery space set up in Plymouth that also supplies residencies spaces for a wide range of artists, and for a week the space was given to the 2nd years of the BA fine art to do as they please. The natural assumption was to make use of the gallery space as it was intended to be used, a gallery space, yet if we were to do that for the full week we would most likely have days where there wasn't anyone viewing the work. Along with that it would mean that people would have to be in the gallery at all times stopping them from getting on with their own practice.
Based on this the decision was made that for the majority of the week we would use the gallery space like a residency, allowing us to work in a space to get a feel of what it would be like for those who are considering of going on to do residencies, as well as showing a option for those who are unsure of what they want to do when it comes to the end of the course.
Based on this the decision was made that for the majority of the week we would use the gallery space like a residency, allowing us to work in a space to get a feel of what it would be like for those who are considering of going on to do residencies, as well as showing a option for those who are unsure of what they want to do when it comes to the end of the course.
This gave those who wanted to use the space to do anything we wanted based on our practice, be it typing up some notes to creating a new piece of artwork, anything could be done within the walls of Karst. Many of the students on the course chose to continue their BAFA practice in preparation for the exhibition on the Thursday. An example would be Adam Coley who took the time to do a “dry run” of his bin performance piece to see how factors of space and time would affect how long he would be able to stay in the bin, plus how the bin itself would look in the space. During the performance there were some factors that weren't expected, mainly how much the bin moved when Coley started getting “overzealous” with the shaking of the bin when he was inside. Discussions afterwards ideas about making a brace that was hidden underneath that would hold the wheels in place but at the same time hold the front of the bin down to eliminate the chances of the bin toppling over.
The day of the exhibition itself was quite busy, the morning consisted of the students bringing all the parts of the publication they have made to form the final publication which would be shown alongside the students other work during the exhibition. This time was very organised with a make shift production line being made to get all the parts organised into the right order ready for the covers which were having handmade stamps added to the covers. While this was happening several students were using old art book to make custom “sleeves” that would hold the chap book together without fear of anything falling out.
All the work that was displayed in the exhibition worked really well within the space, there was no conflict with any of the pieces, a main worry when there was three different sound pieces in the same gallery. Despite this factor the sound pieces were able to work together well without any problems with hearing either piece. The “installation” pieces fitted into the space as well, the support pillars of the gallery make natural boxes that “border” each pieces making clearly distinguishable as that piece. This weirdly worked with the skull piece creating a defined barrier for a piece of work that has no definable edge, while some would argue that this would improve the piece there were those who felt that having the pillars in the four corners seemed to add to the piece almost making it seem like this area was a ritual space and the skulls part of the ceremony. Based on the way the skulls were set up they looked rather small in the space, revealing that if the skulls were to be used in this setup more regularly the number of skulls being used would have to be significantly increased to make a stronger impact either through the piles being larger, or the number of the piles being to the point they feel like a swarm that has over taken the room with their morbid nature.
All the work that was displayed in the exhibition worked really well within the space, there was no conflict with any of the pieces, a main worry when there was three different sound pieces in the same gallery. Despite this factor the sound pieces were able to work together well without any problems with hearing either piece. The “installation” pieces fitted into the space as well, the support pillars of the gallery make natural boxes that “border” each pieces making clearly distinguishable as that piece. This weirdly worked with the skull piece creating a defined barrier for a piece of work that has no definable edge, while some would argue that this would improve the piece there were those who felt that having the pillars in the four corners seemed to add to the piece almost making it seem like this area was a ritual space and the skulls part of the ceremony. Based on the way the skulls were set up they looked rather small in the space, revealing that if the skulls were to be used in this setup more regularly the number of skulls being used would have to be significantly increased to make a stronger impact either through the piles being larger, or the number of the piles being to the point they feel like a swarm that has over taken the room with their morbid nature.
On review the residency turned out better than expected, the days which the studio was a work spaced proved to be a valid feature to those that made use of the space in that time, allowing then to test things they wouldn't have been able to do within the walls of studio 11. Opportunities t layout their work in a true gallery space is a big difference than looking it while it is still in a studio work space. The added element of the actual exhibition only helped further this idea, to see how the work everyone has put into the creation of their art turns out when it is placed into a gallery space. It allowed us to see how they looked and find out things we didnt think of, how big does the projected image have to be? how many skulls are really needed to make a piece? All of these allow us t move the work on and develop it with the right mindset of what will make them perfect for showing in gallerries