Professional Practice External Project: 1 - “An Outcast Bonding Experience” Collaborative Exhibition at Hai Na Oriental Supermarket
Myself and fellow students Lisa Dreykluft and Pip Marshall had intended to put together a collaborative exhibition together for some time. We bonded over how we feel like slight outcasts amongst our fellow peers at art school. Feeling slightly different to those around us, we decided to work together on something that expressed how we felt. We wanted to celebrate what made us different to others instead of trying to blend in.
We started to plan an exhibition which was to be held inside an unconventional space. We wanted to show our work somewhere unusual and unexpected. We found blank white gallery space very over done and predictable and felt they didn’t define us as individuals. We wanted to take risks with this project, to see how far we could push the boundaries.
We started meeting in February, which gave us plenty of time to brainstorm location ideas. These included a laundrette, a hotel room, a garage and a back of a van situated in a car park. We stayed in regular communication over email and planed regular meetings where we shared ideas.
We predictably had challenges when trying to find a space which was mainly down to seeking permission. However, we finally decided on a location after finding it whilst exploring Bath city centre; Hai Na Oriental Supermarket - a small shop situated on the first floor of a building just outside of The Corridor, a shopping district in the centre of Bath. The shop is slightly hidden as it requires customers to walk up a flight of stairs before they enter the shop. Once up there, the contents of the shop on the two small levels were completely unfamiliar to us. The brightly coloured packaging crammed onto the shelves were in a different language, the aisles were narrow with low shelves at the end. This held a perfect space for Lisa and Pip to display their work, which was both video. We decided that for a location that was unusual and not obvious to hold an art exhibition, this was perfect.
The communication with the owner of the shop was initially a bit of a challenge. It was hard to propose such an unusual idea to someone, especially with a language barrier. However, we stated that this would be a great chance to have his new business publicised. After asking us to send him images and descriptions of our current practices, he happily agreed to a short exhibition and a private view.
When it came to deciding what I was going to exhibit, I wanted to take a selection of cards from my piece “Snippets of Conversation” and stick them around the shop in slightly less obvious places, intending to catch peoples eyes as they are shopping. I wanted to do this to see how the cards are received when taken out of the box and displayed individually. I also did it to play with the space. Since we were exhibiting in an unconventional space, I wanted to display my work in an unconventional way.
As we were exhibiting in an oriental supermarket, a large amount of their custom are Chinese. Seeing as my work is text based and all in English, I didn’t want to exclude a large group of viewers. With this in mind, I contacted a Chinese student at Bath Spa University, Tang Ning, via email and asked if she could translate four quotes I selected into her native language. I am glad I included translations alongside my original work as it showed a connection between my work and the location, which I felt was important.
Lisa designed the flyers and the posters which we got printed at Sion hill and distributed them fairly around campus and central Bath in cafes, restaurants, notice boards and shops. I was working on a window display for another project in the same week and took the liberty to use a piece of window I wasn’t using to promote the event by covering it with posters. I also contacted the art and media department of the Bath Chronicle, inviting them to the Private View. We made sure the event information was emailed to every student and member of staff at Bath Spa University through Sue Beech, the department of Art administrator. We also advertised the exhibition on the Fine Art course blog. A final part of promotion consisted of hiring someone to stand outside the shop during the private view and hand out flyers to people walking past. We did this because the entrance to the shop is a little tricky to find and we didn’t want people to miss out.
The private view took place on Wednesday 11th May from 6pm - 8pm. The shop was still open to the public which meant both customers and viewers of the event could purchase items. We also bought food and drink from the shop and had them available to our guests for the event. We thought it would be helpful to provide a hand out for people as they viewed our work including information about each of our works and why we decided to exhibit at the shop.
We received positive feedback from people who attended the private view. People were very impressed that we managed to exhibit in such an unusual space.
I personally hired local photographer Tom Welsh to take photographs of the event. I wanted the pictures to highlight the vibrant colours of the foreign packaging and how our work thrived amongst it. I am really happy with how the photographs turned out and believe they document the event perfectly. The photo’s can be viewed here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142320120@N05/albums/72157668822583511
Our work was exhibited in the shop from 12th - 14th May during the opening hours of the shop. It didn’t require us to invigilate as the shop has an excellent security system and because it is a functioning shop, there was someone responsible present at all times. However, we each visited throughout these two days just to ensure everything was as it should be. It would had been nice if the exhibition had gone on for longer, however, we had to respect the busy nature of the small shop and decided on the short dates to work in correspondents with them. This exhibition was very experimental and we did not want to commit to a longer period of time without having the full confidence that it would be successful. Thankfully, the exhibition went very well with no issues, so if we were to do something similar in the future we may be inclined to extend the time period.
This experience has been hugely beneficial towards developing my skills in many fields that are relevant to being a professional practitioner. We have worked well as a group, respecting each others ideas and views, taking time with planning and developing the project, staying in good communication throughout via email and attending regular meetings, arranging deadlines for tasks far in advance and each being responsible for certain fields of the project we feel we would be best at. I feel this project went so well because of the successful communication between us as a group and the well organised nature we all kept throughout.
