Exhibition in Burnley

My tutor Katy informed me that Sophie Skellern from Fine Art had managed to get hold of a mill in Burnley and was wanting to exhibit there alongside some other Fine Art students and photography students. As Katy and I were discussing this, Sophie came in and she was able to tell me about me more about the venue and asked to go along to the viewing of the venue as she had not seen it before.

Sophie and I met up with the Burnely council and the buildings who are developing the building to have a look at the venue. We had to wear hard hats for safety and we had to go through another building and up some steep stairs into the building. The building was going to be used by the Burnley council who had arranged an exhibition called "Open Weave". They were asking residents of Burnley for open submission so if any artists such as photographers, painters etc would like to exhibit they had to submit a piece of work and if chosen would be able to exhibit at the Mill. There were two separate rooms upstairs in the building. They had one and gave the other side to us.

Above is an image of me and Sophie after looking at the Mill in Burnley




Above is the space we had to work with. This image was taken on the day we went to look at the venue for the first time. Myself and Sophie think the image did not to do it any justice as the building was breathe taking.

After leaving the venue we decided that Sophie would email everyone on the Fine Art department asking if they would like to take place and if so would have to submit a short proposal as to what they will be exhibiting and why they would like to exhibit. I did the same and emailed the photography department

We said that we would have 15 Fine Art students and 15 photography students at the most who would be able to exhibit in the Mill. We sent an email out and I asked the photography students to email Sophie with their proposal. We had a few students from each year group who were interested in exhibiting their work.

Throughout the weeks building up to the exhibition I would be contact with Sophie trying to help out as much as I could for the Burnley exhibition. The name "ARTiculate" was Sophie's idea and the council said that their graphics designer would design the logo for us. Sophie arranged everyone to have postcards made so that everyone had separate postcards with an image of it and information behind it.

People who were exhibiting their work started to go down to the venue from the 23th April to set up their work ready for the opening night on the 26th April.

Above is an example of the leaflets for the Burnley exhibition. 

The open night was successful, a few people came and the organisation somewhereto_ who helped Sophie find the location were there to support the event and put on a selection of dancers, singers and rapers to entertain the guests as they walk around the venue giving the event a friendly, positive atmosphere. 

Below are some images from the opening evening.

Above is an image of my work. The four images on the wall are images I captured for my professional studies brief. The two photos that are printed on fabric are my one of my previous briefs, were we had to capture image using techniques. I wanted to print the images on fabric and I had picture them be big and stretched out so I thought the Mill would be an ideal place to try. I ordered the fabric prints from a place called Silk Bureau but the most width they could do was just over a metre so I had to go off the measurements that they were able to print. My idea was to hang them off a steel pole going across each wall support, but when it was hung up there it looked to high up form the ground, so with the help of one of my University colleagues we we hung string across the two poles at the top and the bottom and using spring clicks I clicked the fabric onto the string and stretched it out. The image above was before I stretch the fabric out.

The image above is of the four images I have chosen to use for my public forum brief. The images are going in the order in which the story is told that is loved one is dieing and he is unable to let go. 

Above is an image of me on the opening night standing next/near to my images. I had good feedback about both sets of images. The ones on the wall people say had say the same that I captured the emotion and the prints were professional and the fabric images people found it very effective and felt that is had the feel of the person in the fabric was actually coming out of the fabric itself. As it was hung up and the light shown through it you could see if from either side. 

The image above is off the two prints I had captured on fabric. I like the way they were stretched out but next time I would like to stretch them out by the sides as well so it had more of an impacted and so that the fabric was not loose. Other than that I am happy with the way they have turned out and will be exhibiting in London soon and will take on of them down with me. 

The two images above are of the exhibition on the opening night

Overall, I feel the work that was exhibited in the Mill was of a high standard and although it was not busy with people there was always people looking around.  I am happy with the work I exhibited, as I feel they were of a high standard. I did not put the poem up as I wanted people to make you there own mind and really look at the image to make their own story up but next time I will include the poem to see what effect it does to the viewers.