04.05.2019

Since emailing the photograph of the bottle tops mural to the students union for printing, some issues and confusion with payment had arose. Because of this, now the printed board couldn't be up by Friday 3rd May. This was disappointing as I had family coming to the end of year exhibition, Amalgamation, and would've been great to share the success with them, but a minor set back at that. With the help of Anna, one of my lecturers, the project has been put back on track and the order has been placed. We are now hoping to use the Degree show as the opening instead. 

There were also some re-arranging of dates for the workshops with the nurseries, as we are now hoping to get an early years education student to put together a lesson/workshop plan for the day. Pushing it back to Wednesday 29th May, a day in the middle of half term for schools, also coinciding with the National Children's Gardening Week event outside the Students Union. This will hopefully lead to a really fun and exciting day of activities with the kids, teaching them important lessons about the fragility of our ecosystem.

As the public printed artwork wasn't ordered in time, I was glad I had brought the piece back with me to be in the exhibition, as we could still present the work to the public in a different form. We had found room In the exhibition in the front hallway and gave the public a bright and colourful artwork to be greeted by. 

I had brought in the bottle tops mural on Tuesday in the afternoon, and on Wednesday morning I used the assistance of artist David Bethell for the install. As the bottle tops varied in size and height, flipping it on its front to drill the two boards together would've caused damage to the work. So to reduce the breakage of bottle tops we used two tables, slightly separated. Once the two boards were connected we made measured markings on the wall in the hallway so that the mural would sit in the middle. As the wall panels weren't strong enough, we had to attach the mural to the vertical wooden joists, to insure that the boards would be secure. To do this without any screws on show, we measured the distance from the edge of the board to where the joists would sit, and removed plastic bottle tops vertically along the line. After then getting help from 4-5 other students, and glueing the bottle tops that had been taken/ fallen off, the tricky and fiddly install was complete.

I was overall pleased with the positioning of the board, but as only one light in the hallway was working sufficiently; it was quite dark and poorly lit. To improve the end result of this work, I should have sourced/brought in some external lighting, to help accentuate  the colours and details within the piece. 

The feedback I had received throughout the night, but also during install and setting up was beyond positive. Everyone loved the colours, and was impressed by the different tones and shadings I had achieved, whilst also reflecting on the important message of the work behind it. Picking up key themes of plastic pollution, tsunamis, climate change, and recognising Hokusai's The Great Wave as well. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of this project, and although there was a delay in the printing and installing of the permanent board, I am pleased that it was out of my hands, and I still reached my personal deadline in time. I am still looking forward to the opening at the Degree show, and will start to gather some more ideas for activities for the workshops.