The Lobby Space Group Exhibition

Capturing and recording the process.

THE BIG WALK

KENSA RESCORLA, JESS YOUNG & DIDGE DOWLEY

Curating The Lobby 

Date : Monday, February 6th 2012.

It is important for me to reflect on the curation of the Lobby space over a period of time because it has been relevant to the evolution of our group exhibition. The preceding 2 week time slot was booked by Kensa and the theme for her exhibition was the idea that it was possible to bring her artistic explorations of the horizon into a covered walled space.

This idea was expressed in the form of a very long roll of lining paper pinned to the Lobby walls onto which was written a line of words and colour. During Kensa’s engagement with the process of hanging the art work it became apparent, in its present form it did not work for this exhibition space.

While engaging with her work in this environment an evolutionary artistic and curatorial process was taking place and as a result she produced another ‘site specific‘ piece of work that was direct and immediate in the form of mirror writing in lead pencil directly onto the Lobby walls. In effect this horizon line then became a part of the fabric of the interior walls of the building and it was something that had been missing up until that point. This change projected and elevated the work and Kensa succeeded in her intention of bringing the essence and magnanimity of the ever present although not always seen horizon line into an interior white walled enclosed space.

Another important decision Kensa made was to exhibit this work as one of her representations of The Big Walk for our group exhibition which followed. We all agreed that it was a very good idea because for us the horizon was an integral part of the walk. It created quite a curatorial stir and the question arose before the exhibition;

“Do we cover the line with the work or do we go around it?” 

We made a decision to just think about the answer but not discuss it until we came together to set up on the Monday morning. None of us realized how important and defining its inclusion was to become. My own feeling about it was that it should not be covered and that the choice of work and its distribution into areas should flow (like the walk) with the contour of the horizon line. Its presence became the datum for the process of curation and at the beginning everything was placed either above or below it. This first discussion set up a kind of precedent, a productive and co operative way to work that repeated itself many times during the collaboration.

The Lobby is divided into 4 main areas. 

Area 1 is to your right where the comfortable chairs reside, one main wall is flanked by two others which creates a box like space. It is ideal for a hang out, snug like, coffee table reading area. Which is how I imagined it to be for this show, somewhere to sit and take a moment to peruse the exhibition. It is here where we gathered all our work and laid it out on the floor against the walls. This included walking poles, boots, maps, white measuring string, beach detritus, sketches, journals, photographs, photocopies, silkscreen prints, 2d/3d constructed objects. It really helped to see all the work in situ and to then place it around the walls experimentally.

We began working with the larger 3/d objects as it was felt they could be placed in different  positions to draw the spectators focal plane into and around the room. I wanted the Moon assemblage to be high above the horizon line looking out and over the space and we agreed on its position in the far right corner of area A.

The second large individual object which followed this initial hanging was the 2d/3d Moon eclipse painting. It seemed to be the perfect size for the smaller area diagonally opposite, in the far left along the long wall with double doors that leads into Studio 11. We played around with its position above and below the line and while this was happening Kensa noticed that the contour of its shape settled very nicely into the contour of the written horizon line. We became quite excited by this surprise and decided to go with it placing the object over thus covering a section of the horizon. This discovery informed how we then hung a group of photographs that included views of the horizon which ran down the whole length covering and flowing with the contour of the undulating written horizon line.

The seating area was brought together using a large plinth laid on its side with 4 comfy chairs placed around it. Jess noticed an uncomfortable protrusion in the arrangement and was very keen to place the seating area off centre which created a whole new, large section of blank wall to the right. Its inclusion also created a new visual plane and lower viewing area. It seemed the perfect place for Jess to create her intuitive gatherings and she set to work on putting together her montage. 

We also placed the objects gathered and created on the walk, Kensa’s maps and journals and laid them on the low table for people to handle and read. Our walking poles and boots were positioned next to the table as if they had been left there at the end of our adventure.

The two photographs that represented the fear and danger we encountered on the walk were also placed in this area the process of hanging theses took a while, we tried them in a few different positions and had different opinions as to where they should be hung. We experimented until we all agreed on the best position. Also on this wall is the practical and necessary ‘info’ point and it was turned into an opportunity for Jess to bring her love of the old fashioned and superseded typewriter into this digital age and the Artists statement became a piece of art work in its own right.

Also from this seated position we could see that there was another potential viewing area 10 meters away, above the banister rail on the landing of the stairs.The remaining photographs logging different aspects of the walk were placed in a traditional, orderly and symmetrical fashion and the difference of subject matter and arrangement was the antithesis of how the other large group of photographs were hung. We did not use a tape measure or spirit level, I was really surprised at how accurate it was relying on ones own sense of space and symmetry and I learnt something very useful working with Kensa and Jess.

To the right of the seating area we placed the three A4 photographs that contained our written interpretations of the walk printed onto them. For me what was particularly interesting about these individual pieces of work was that we had created them in isolation but there was a definite creative thread running through the medium and materials chosen. It created its own little sub group, when placed together became a larger more powerful and dominant addition to the main wall. They represented intrinsically and in depth ‘us’, the Artists presenting the exhibition. 

I usually sign my work but on this occasion I didn't think it was necessary and an interesting curatorial question could be posed at this point.

“There is no individual ownership of any of the work, was this planned or intentional?” 

It was an issue that was not discussed before hand but it was something Jess talked about as we began bringing our work together. For me I felt as though each persons work would stand alone and the opportunity to bring this individuality into a group dynamic would create a wholly more powerful show. This was an important aspect because that is intrinsically what the work is about : - The power of nature and our own expression of the experience and challenge within it. To sign names and own the work would detract from the importance of what we were trying to express. Together we stood a chance of expressing the enormity of what we had initially undertaken and I think by relinquishing the usual and expected mode of ownership this created a sense of the feeling that all humanity experiences when faced with the incomprehensibility of natural phenomena. We three mere mortal human beings are paying homage to the powers of the universe and in this world names are un important. This sense or understanding may have also been felt by Kensa and Jess?