I’ve been to several exhibitions recently and rather than write a précis of the artists’ work I thought that I would write something about my impressions of each exhibition and how I felt each one worked differently.
The first one was the Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Shot at Dawn exhibition held at the Stills Gallery in Edinburgh. I have already provided a write up of what I thought about the excellent work work so, as I say, this bit is about the exhibition showing itself. I am not sure about the funding situation for the Stills Gallery but this exhibition was quite a high profile for this gallery and yet was free to view. The space available gave ample opportunity to show enough of Matthews’ work to gain a good sense of what the work was about and the message it was trying to express. These photographs were printed large therefore there needed to be sufficient white wall space to achieve this and so the venue seemed to work quite well for the photographer. The overall impression was that the exhibition had made every effort to show the work to its best and for that to be its absolute focus, rather than it be about the exhibition itself.
Next I took a quick visit to a student showcase event in Glasgow which had selected what they felt was the best work from student shows across Scotland this year. The space available was plentiful with good natural light however because this was a showcase there was only limited space for each student. As a viewer I got the sense that I needed to see more of each student’s work to get a sense of their intentions. The limited allocation of space did affect this quite a bit. It was still interesting to go see the exhibition as a useful benchmark for my own work.
The following week I went to an OCA study visit to the exhibition ‘Conflict Time Photography’ held at the Tate Modern in London. This exhibition was based on a central connecting theme rather than any individual artist. The space given over to this was huge which allowed many different photographers work to be shown and thus enable comparison between how each of them connected with the theme. The problem with this was that the exhibition as a whole became the focus of attention rather than getting to know any particular artist’s work. My reaction to this at the time was jotted down in my notebook:
“In a sublime sense the images do little for me. My only experience of war is from movies and computer games therefore these photos relate more to those media experiences for me. It is the accompanying words that seem to have the power and the images a mere catalogue and evidence to support those words. The exception is McCullen’s classic portrait of a soldier just after battle. The immediacy of this image gives it its power. I question with the rest, how long afterwards do these events become nostalgic.”
There was a general discussion about whether this exhibition worked in its layout and approach. The curator had organised it based on how long after the actual event/war that each work had been photographed, with the first photographs taken the closest after the actual event. There was a suggestion that it might have worked the other way around so that there was a growing sense of audience impact as you walked through the exhibition. I could, however, see what the curator was trying to achieve as the widening time between the event and the photograph was similar to the growing time between entering the exhibition and then leaving. The other feature I picked up from the exhibition was how my sense of appreciation of the style of each work changed from documentary for those shot closest to the event, moving on to remembrance, and then to nostalgia as the photographs were shot furthest from the actual event.
Overall, this exhibition was big and bold and thus seemed to focus attention more on the exhibition itself rather than showcasing any individual photographer.
The latest exhibition was ‘Ponte City’ held at the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This is a typically historic and impressive building located in the city centre yet there was still a good balance between the photographic work and the exhibition space which gave the viewer the time and space to interact with the various different aspects of the show and gain something from this. The work itself was an eclectic arrangement of photographs and found documents that were used to document the experience of living in this semi-derelict apartment block in Johannesburg. I think that the curation was thoughtfully planned with the viewer experience in mind.
Major Project 