In the Covid world that we have been living in, it has been a lovely experience to put up a small exhibition of our work and see it on the walls. Online submissions are not fun, to be able to display a body of work in a physical way is incredibly satisfying and unfortunately something that we have not had much experience on doing. Having the opportunity to exhibit our work has also given me a widened perspective on the work that my fellow course mates are making. As well as it being a lovely way to celebrate the hard work that has gone into our projects and second year of uni.
As you can see in the video above, I exhibited both of my bodies of work “Ocean Path” and “Thirty Five” which both come under the titles “Grounded Routes”. I displayed the bodies of work in three ways, a moving image in the centre of my exhibition, a layout of prints and a zine of each body of work. The prints laid out on the table compliment the moving image, the two journeys visual explore my personal relationship with the land and the people that I travel through it with.
The smooth and calming sound that sits alongside my moving image creates a sense of peace when the viewer is taking their time to view my work. The slow movements of the cinemacity piece also creates a sense of calming contentment which reflects the meditative journeys and inner silence that I visually and physically collect when I am making this kind of work. As the photographs are laid down on the table, when the viewer is looking down at them their eyes are not being distracted from the TV. This separates the two bodies of work, and even though they are close together, the layout separates and collects the two bodies of work separately.
Setting up the exhibition was an all hands on deck experience and everyone was helping each other to put up their work. It was sentimentally lovely to all be together working and celebrating the work that we had made. For over a year now, we have not physically seen a lot of each other's work, nor worked together as a group on anything let alone an exhibition. The experience most definitely has given me time to reflect on the past year and it is an exciting feeling that our third year will be a lot more involved within the college and each other.
Overall, I felt happy with the way in which the exhibition was set up. I am particularly proud with the amount of work that I was able to show and I feel like it reflected the passion and hours that I have put into creating this body of work. It has stemmed thinking about the kind of work that I want to do over the summer and into my third year of uni. I feel like this exhibition and project has allowed me to create a visual identity that is true to myself and invites me in to developing my conceptual landscapes in the future.