Out There: A long and rambling final rationale.

When I chose to be in the marketing aspect of this exhibition I had no idea about the extent to the hard work that would be involved. We started off well with lots of good ideas but were left waiting to get the ball rolling for quite sometime until the name had been decided, the theme was chosen and the overall look had been designed which were all jobs done by different teams.

Once we got going we were lucky that Beth managed to blag us some free posters, which when they finally arrived looked amazing and we had been given A3 posters instead of the A4 that they offered which was even better. We struggled with getting any free drinks, so that was a job that had to be left to fundraising to try and gain some cash to pay for it. The posters have been put in various places from student areas, general public places and some even in the art gallery to encourage people from the art world to attend which should hopefully make for a full and fun opening night.

It was decided to have luggage tags as something to hand out as a marketing device, effectively as a flyer. It was my job to source all the luggage tags and I found a really useful website which delivered them quickly and efficiently which was great. I ordered 250 to be used as flyers and a further 1000 which will be used as a window display at the exhibition.

Screen printing the flyers was quite difficult. A group of us helped out creating almost a production line so that we could get all 250 printed quickly. I think that the red ink on the brown luggage tags work really well. The main issue was getting the consistency of the ink right so that you could read the information properly. These flyers are unique and can be tied to trees and left in places which makes them really useful. We cannot just hand the flyers out because I looked into getting a flyer licence and it was going to cost £75 for one person to have a pass!

My job was also to contact the main players of the art world and try to get them to the exhibition. I spent a lot of time on the internet searching for contact details of artists, tutors, curators, arts groups, gallery people and many more and then sending them the details and an invite to our show.

It was useful that we were able to have a website to direct people to and on that website you can view everyone’s work. Ruth did a really good job with that and Emily’s piece of writing on there is great too.

Now the exhibition is on the horizon and its all now up to logistics to get everything to the site safely and curators to get it all looking fantastic. All that’s left for marketing is to push our online presence on facebook and get the invite sent out on LVAF again the day before the exhibition. Booze has been purchased and bubble wrap is on hand, so fingers crossed it’ll all go well.

In conclusion, putting on this exhibition has not been without its problems. Our main issue has been communication, making sure everyone is on the same page. The most annoying thing has been when people have not attended a meeting and then have a lot of things to moan about afterwards when things have already been decided. Actually getting people to help has been another main concern, the same few people have actually had an input in this show and that’s not because they wanted to but due to necessity because a lot of people had no interest or care in the whole thing. It makes me feel angry that they are actually allowed to exhibit anything in this show when they contributed literally nothing to the making of it (the actual hard work). We have learnt a lot from this exhibition which will help us next year when it comes to putting on our end of year show. We know who will and won’t help and we know when things need to be done for so that we aren’t left waiting to get other parts started. So because of these lessons that have been learnt… the whole Lost Property exhibition has been useful overall.

As for blogging, it has been quite a good experience because I tend to go to these exhibitions without paying too much attention but I have learnt how to look properly now and think about how the whole thing has been put on. By writing about what I’ve seen it gives me somewhere to collect my thoughts and images for future reference so I might consider blogging again.

I have created a gallery blog for my work which is here: http://lauracarterart.blogspot.com/

Logistical issues!

The logistics of getting our sculptures to our exhibition space has not been an easy task. We have found that just in transporting our sculptures to and from the lighting studio they have started to die a little, especially the two cats. This is because we did not build a wooden support structure internally with them as they were the first sculptures we built. We have had to have a last minute re-build of the cats backs.

Luckily we have been using our girlie charm with the blokes in woodwork and have got them to build us some stretchers for transporting the sculptures, one for each. They have hand holes and holes for a rope to thread through holding the pieces in place. Each sculpture will be bubble wrapped and wrapped with cardboard too. Hopefully this should get each piece to the shop unit in a good state.



This is our spot at the exhibition site. we have a plug and we have a dark room with no working lights which is perfect for what we need. I quite hoped that the floor would be a darker colour but I still think our white sculptures will look good in there. We want to light our sculptures partially so that they look as if they're emerging out of the dark subconcious into reality.



We are going to use these spot lights (£1.99 in home bargains) which have a nice soft white light and just have it sat on the floor, wires exposed but taped down so that they are safe.

Marketing Updates

Well things are coming together now. The posters have arrived so we're gonna get them out and about. Luckily Beth has managed to get them in the art gallery which is great and we'll get them up in various shops etc. The posters look great, its really nice to see them around college and stuff, it finally feels a bit like it will actually happen!



I e-mailed a big list of important folk yesterday with an invite to the show. I researched for hours for e-mail addresses. People on the list include: lots of art related staff from leeds met and leeds uni, PSL people, ESA, the arts council people, artists I've met at a few exhibitions, the people from the art walk, some of the art magazine people and even Steve Manthorpe who taught us for that other module and many more.


Yesterday we had a meeting with Yvonne at the space. It was quite embarrasing at how little people turned up and Yvonne wanted to know what was going where but we couldn't really tell her beacause we actually didn't know since we haven't seen some people since christmas.

She asked us for names of people who she can give to the security guards for keys. The names we gave her are me, Michael and Emily, so if anyone collects the key on a day that one of us are not there, then they need to say it is on our behalf as a security reference.

We asked Yvonne about putting the tags that I sourced in the windows as a display. She told us that we cannot stick anything on the inside of the window because of the sprinklers for health and safety reasons. We can stick them on the outside or hang them slightly back from the windows. We can decide where abouts they go once we get there. We have over 1000 tags to use so there should be pleanty.


Finally the tags and flyers are screen printed. It was very difficult to get the consistancy right but they say what they need to say and have been given out to people who we hope will help us with distribution. We can't just hand the flyers out because I looked into a flyer liscence and that was £75 for one person! so we'll do it a legal and cunning way instead. So now the job for us marketing people really is to just keep pushing the LVAF thing, the fliers and getting the posters everywhere we can.

Sending an invite to YOUR contacts

Anyone wanting to send an invite to one of your contacts, here is how to get the code.

Follow this link --> http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/Koolkitten2/?action=view&current=Lostproperty.jpg

Copy the HTML code that is to the left of the image. Paste that HTML code into your e-mail.

Thankies.

Tramway

This piece at the Tramway by Christoph Buchel was something that left me feeling horrified and amazed and still thinking about it for days afterwards. I don't really think I've ever been particually moved by a piece of art before, not like that anyway. Its hard to describe this piece except that you find yourself going from a pub...to a prison and then to a plane crash that is being pieced back together but you are totally unsure why.

A review by the skinny said: "Exploring Büchel’s work is a strange and affecting experience, provoking many contradictory reactions from moment to moment, excitement-dread-pleasure oddly coexisting and leaving us confused, drained yet oddly fulfilled when we are eventually spat out back at the entrance. Go."

In this review by the guardian it says "Büchel makes other installation artists look like wimps"

Turn It On Again - Glasgow Visit

We were introduced to Connor Kelly by Niall Macdonald and shown around his studio, it was in a arch under a railway bridge which had be converted into a studio space that he shared with 3 other people. I saw this piece while I was there and was pretty amazed at how they had got the plaster to hold its shape, no doubt it must be fairly fragile.

We then went to visit an exhibiton containing Connor Kelly and Niall Macdonald's work called Turn it on again. The work by Niall was something that interested me, I thought he'd been using plaster, but he told be that it is jesmonite which is a much tougher material than plaster and is easier to dye with pigments.

This piece was also in this exhibition. The ball shapes are austrich eggs with text on them, it looked like a poem. The one on the floor was not intended to be smashed, although it looks like it was intentional. I do hope our sculptures don't smash during the exhibition.

Vestiges Park - Glasgow Visit

One of my favourite things from the trip to Glasgow was the visit to this temporary park, Vestiges Park. A group of artists took over a piece of wasteland next to the sculpture studios for the time of the glasgow international art fair and turned it into a sculpture park.

We were introduced to Kirsty Shindler from Low Salt and some of her collegues who help to look after and build the park.

One of the freakiest things in the park was this shed, it was filled with hands. The hand on the door was disgusting, so realistic and squashy, bleugh!

One cool interactive part of the park was making plastercine models and postioning them in this rockery. I made a whalephone. There were some really intersting little models in there.


I loved how these artists had turned what was a dump into something with beauty and mystery. As you walked through this park you wondered what was coming next and the witty nature of the art works here was intreguing.