In Context
How Do You Feel The Organisation Went?
What Did You Learn From The Organisation Process?
I felt like, within organisations, you have stronger characters and hierarchies will form. This was the case during this process of organising the exhibition. I myself am still finding my voice, so I find that if someone takes over I will take a step back and I will sit and watch until I am involved. I felt that this meant my ideas and contributions were not taken seriously.
As a result of this situation, I feel that developing my confidence and assertiveness when working within a group would be beneficial. I know that I am better at working in a smaller group than a larger one as I can become overwhelmed. In order to develop professionally and to be able to work with larger teams, I will need to retrain myself to think positively about my own ideas and not be afraid to contribute.
What Did You Learn From The Exhibition Process?
The exhibition process on this occasion was exciting to start with and unfortunately became a bit of a nightmare. I honestly believed it would have worked much easier if the class had longer to prepare for it and had more experience in organising such an event. There were a lot of factors involved in doing such a task and communication was so vitally important. As previously discussed earlier, communication broke down within the class and that was where I believe the exhibition began to not be appealing as a collaborative event. After this, In the background discussions were being spoken about but I was not included in them, making me feel uncomfortable and wondering if I would ever be part of this exhibition at all. It was only much later on that the situation came to a head and made it more amicable to be able to continue with the task at hand.
After my images had been captured and needed to print my work, in the end, I had to get the printing completed at Coleg Gwent due to the cost but also due to issues around time management and leaving the printing until too late. Unfortunately, the printer I was due to have delivered to my home had not yet arrived and so I was unable to follow my original plan of printing at home. This was extremely disappointing because it was another financial cost that I had to burden.
On a practical level, I should have displayed my business cards during the exhibition however when assisting in looking after the exhibition if asked by the public I handed my cards out to promote myself.
Financially the cost of an exhibition can be expensive, not only for acquiring the venue but for the other items mentioned previously such as framing. This is where I found that shopping around reduced my costs. I found suppliers varied in price and quality. As I am really only starting out it seemed silly to spend a fortune, as it stood after a few of them fell off the uneven walls a few times, it became a costly exercise. This is why for my next exhibition I am going to rethink the use of frames, instead, I may just mount the images and stick these on the walls, or use foam board. A guest book was supplied wherein comments had been made as to the quality of the work and the viewers’ thoughts. This will definitely be beneficial in the future for progression.
How Did The Exhibition Go?
The exhibition itself was in a good venue. The walls were not great as things kept on falling off them, but with regards to my own work, it was completed on time. The way my contribution was placed was exactly as I had wanted it. I did not realise how expensive it would be with regards to command strips and frames.
In the end, the exhibition came together nicely. There has been good feedback. On launch night, when the visitors came to see my work I explained what the work was about and I went through the pictures and managed to sell some of my work. I was pleased that my work was completely different to what people expected. In hindsight, I would have liked to have put some more work up but in the end, I decided to stick with what I thought would make an impact, which seemed to work.
What Did You Learn During This Project?
On a professional level, the venue was nice, I did not get involved with the financial side so I cannot make a comment, I had less involvement than I would have liked. I believe this was due to the stronger characters within this class.
My point of view about the other standard of work shown at the exhibition is that it was of a high standard, everyone had their own individual interpretations of the word ‘RAW’ and what it meant to them. I felt each of the interpretations included photographs that complimented their body of work, with regards to my own work I believe it fitted the brief and also made the viewer consider things on a more psychological level. I captured more images than I chose to put up in the exhibition, the ones that were part of it were the stronger of my images. I felt they created more of an impact.
The video that was produced at the beginning of this module was only available online which was a terrible shame, it explained how ‘RAW’ was interpreted by us individually. Also just having individual descriptions by our work did not seem to work well. I feel if there was a description of what the exhibition was by the main poster in the venue window, then the public could have understood themselves instead of asking for an explanation as to why we had done it. During my few days when I looked after the exhibition, members of the public who visited were oblivious as to what the exhibition was all about. On greeting each of the visitors at the entrance I found myself explaining the reason for the exhibition. Although it was repetitive, people passing would hear me and also come through the door too this increased the numbers.
During the launch night and the two week period, the exhibition was open for, I noted the feedback I have had from the public and teaching staff where I am learning. Comments have been positive so far, how cleverly put together it was, very pleasing to the eye and how after reading the description and viewing the images, they could relate to it in their own life.
With the invitation being sent out sooner to more people, a bigger turnout could have been achieved on the launch night. Despite this I now understand, if you have an amazing image where there is a narrative behind it, you stand a greater chance of selling your work successfully.