04.05.2019

Now being the day after the opening of Amalgamation, I can reflect on the week, and review how successful my installation was/went. 

On Monday I begun by bringing the work into the space and measuring sizes for the plinth for my 'turtle nose stud' sculpture. Once I was happy with the measurements I got the wood cut to size, and glued/taped it together. I was painting my plinths a rich blue, and completed my tasks by 3pm. I then was able to arrange my installation in the way as described in my proposal. 

Once the work was set out in the way I had intended, I realised it didn't quite work with the space. The exhibiting room I was in has a wall to the left of my installation, a door on the same wall to the right, and a wall sized window on the right (according to the image below). As the sculptures were front facing, this meant they were facing away from the door and window, meaning the viewer would have to be in a particular position to observe the work fully, making it awkward for viewing. 

It also felt pushed up against the wall. I was in a room with wall based work, paintings, and after a peer pointing this out, I realised I had an opportunity to occupy more space than I was using. 

Now Tuesday, I decided to completely mix up what I had originally planned. I had started by moving the plinths into the middle of the room to see roughly what it would look like in the middle. Straight away this arose issues with how you could view the paintings on the other walls. As the artist I was sharing the room with had multiple paintings making up a grid, it encouraged the way you view it to step back and have some distance from the paintings. By having the plinths in the middle it was restricting the viewing of this work, and overlapped/blocked them when from a distance. I had to think of another way I could use space, whilst not interfering with the other artists paintings. 

After negotiating a space swap with the other artist in the room, this gave me a cornered space which would fit better for what I now envisioned. 

I had then experimented with different compositions and decided on using the plinths/sculptures to create a symmetrical line in ascending order of height, similar to the lines and curves of a wave. I was happy with this decision as it is quite minimal yet pleasing on the eye. 

As I had now changed the spacing with my sculptures, I could no longer use the net as it was, in the way I had wanted to, so begun testing out different ways I could use it. 

Using pins I then hung the net on the wall. Although I thought it was effective in making the viewer/sculptures feel so small and consumed in comparison, it felt very fussily placed rather than a more natural swept feel I was after. So on Wednesday I removed the net and started again, now having the net protruding from the floor. This still didn't feel right to me so I took a break and painted the square on the floor for my penguin to sit in. 

I then sought out advice from my peers on other ways I could display the net that doesn't overlap into the 'seagull raincoat' sculpture's space, and potentially away from the wall as I wanted to have the viewer see the net as a physical, heavy sculptural object, rather than a more two dimensional form.

After getting some suggestions, I decided I wanted to keep the net in a similar state to how it would wash up on shore, or be tangled within the ocean. I wanted to have the net half hanging from fishing line, with the rest gathered and touching the floor. This proved difficult as the ceiling in the room is roughly double the height of a standard building ceiling, meaning it was unreachable to suspend something from. With the help of another artist on Thursday, we were able to use nails to attach fishing line from one wall to the opposite, which allowed us to then attach and suspend the net from the line. This was a perfect solution to the problem as it was hardly visible and allowed me to suspend the net away from the wall and make it look free standing. 

I am still really pleased with the impact the net creates as the height of the object is around 5 foot, giving an intimidating and overpowering feeling, and creates a really heavy and bulky impression to the net. I also added small details like sewing on fish hooks in different sizes, intertwined within the net. 

Overall it has been a tough week full of decision making and trial and error, but has been extremely rewarding. I am really happy with the final composition of the installation, and although it has been stressful at times, have really enjoyed making the most out of the space and sculptures.