sparks
exhibition
SPARKS EXHIBITION 1-3 FEB
Legge Studios, an ex metal workshop in Lewisham, was the location for a polyhedric exhibition called Sparks. The event was organised by 15 students from our class.
There were artworks of every kind on display, including; painting, drawings, sculpture, video, prints and jewellery. To bring joy to this event, there were workshops for children ran by some of the students, during Saturday and Sunday from 12 pm until 3 pm. These consisted wood carving, caricature drawing and clay modelling.
The reason for Lewisham was that the Sparks Show was a collaboration between students from Wimbledon and Camberwell both Colleges within UAL. Artists from the former, gallerists and installers from the latter. We also wanted to engage the local community and Legge Street Studios already had established links with residents. We were also able to connect with St.Mary’s Primary School, which is located nearby.
The group began to meet, to discuss the conditions, planning and preparation of the exhibition. It is not easy to gather 15 people to work on the same project, since the opinions and working methods vary so much from one to another. So in an organic way we were divided into tasks, and small groups to which specific responsibilities were assigned. There were curation/and installing team, catering team, workshop team, communication team, finance team, and in between some individual tasks.
I was a member of communication team. I did the posters to announce the exhibition to the public, developing an image of the show and also the map of the Legge Studios floor plan with our pieces in it. Programming everything with InDesign.
I have Iearned a lot by this participation, one of the reasons was because we artists were the ones who have initiated (by Liliana Oderstone proposal). I took a lot of lessons for the future, about communication and agreements between the artists and space owners, among other practical issues. We have made a last meeting between us (artists) to discuss a feedback and to understand what went good and bad, and essentially to learn from it, since it was our first show.
It is very hard to organise an exhibition from the beginning, in a space that is not prepared. The space was not perfect for the meaning, but its raw and workshop charisma had a lot of potential. I tried to integrate my pieces with the space. Using and playing with elements/machines that would not be removed from the room. I believe that the way we install our work is very important and so I did any best to combine the space and any sculptures so the viewer could understand and feel a connection between them.
