exhibition planning and making

my blog has been a little bit quiet lately, and my excuse for that is that i have been a bit too busy in the studio. since i got back from my trip home to canada i have had the last 2 months to really get serious and think about a small solo exhibition that i have opening early september in melbourne.  i applied for some funding before i left on my trip and found out just after i returned that my application was successful. this was good news, the extra funds has helped make 2 months to make new work for the exhibition easier. 

i started as i usually do, making a to scale model of the gallery space. the gallery i am showing at has 3 spaces, and i am in the gallery 3 space, which is smaller and more intimate, but a perfectly good space for my work.

then i printed out some to scale artworks that i could install in the gallery to try out different layouts.

i also made some visitors to the gallery to get a sense of hanging height and wall space.

it's a bit of a tricky space, in that it has 2 doors that open into the space. the doors are really just moving sections of wall, and normally artwork can be hung on them, but seeing as my wall panels are glass it might not be such a good idea.

i tried a few layouts, and then decided on the direction for the work and the plan for the show.

there will be 6 of these large black sandblasted tiles that will hang across one wall and then around the corner onto the adjoining wall in a long row. 2 tiles being shown already existed but i have made 4 new ones for the show.

these 2 tiles were made during a residency in canberra, they are clown glass, with sandblasted outlines and then hand enameled. i really like them and want to make a small collection of work using these processes, and i thought i was going to for this show. but in the end i actually decided to make one large multi panel piece instead. i think i was worried that the feel of the hand painted technique would not sit well with the rest of the techniques i am using in the show. i know i will make work like this, just not for this show it seems.

this is the mulit panel piece as it is now. i am halfway done the sandblasting. i will finish it off tomorrow, and hopefully you can then make out what it is.

the last collection of pieces will be similar to this work. they are hand blown glass panels that will be sandblasted with a high contrast image. the new ones will only be one panel each.

this is the panels laid out in the studio with the negative of the images on each one. i need to make the stencils for them and then sandblast them. if all goes to plan will have all the work complete by the end of the day tuesday. leaving me a couple weeks to organise packing, freight and photography of the artworks for the show.