Hanging an Exhibition

Irena Willmott / Justin Hawkes

Since October when I got my dream job, I have been learning about curating as I went along and it’s been a great deal of fun!  I have hung my own little exhibitions before but never a large body of work by other artists.  It’s been an interesting process, one that has developed as I’ve moved from instinct to knowledge brought by experience.

Anji Jackson-Main / Brigitte Anne Hague

To me it’s important to create something that gives the viewer a way in, rather than something that shuts people out.  I sometimes feel that stark white walls around a lone painting is just making the viewer do all the work, which of course is fine but rather daunting and perhaps a little limiting.

Justin Hawkes / Irena Willmott / Mel Fraser

I am a passionate writer and reader of stories, children’s, fiction, history, biography, whatever takes my interest.  In this last show particularly I am aware that the way the pieces are positioned, the choices I have made as well as those of the artists, tell a story.   A story of form, texture, colour, detail and simplicity. It has never quite worked as powerfully for me before and I am struck by the thought that my creativity has also taken part, I have joined in the artist’s dance. 

Christophe Gordon-Brown / Mel Fraser

A colleague of mine once said that he thought I should just let the Art speak for itself, a fan of white walls and space.  Whereas I came from the angle that a loose theme or common thread made it easier to speak to the public.  I still feel that has a place, the themes really were very loose and never restrictive to the artist.  However I guess I am now feeling braver and more able to express myself creatively here, instead of keeping it quietly under wraps.

Brigiite Anne Hague / Bob Crooks

Alan Foxley / Anji Jackson-Main

There’s a lovely flow about this exhibition despite the fact that the artists were chosen almost at random, just because we liked their work.  There was no overarching idea other than to bring some fabulous work together.  Perhaps I have moved out of my own way at last and gone with an emotional response to the work rather than an intellectual one.

Mel Fraser / Anji Jackson-Main

It was interesting how as the artists delivered their work and I hung the show, each piece eased itself into a given space organically.  The texture of the carved stone alongside felted and embroidered material, the masculinity of one piece softened by the femininity of another, the arching colour of a painting echoing it’s twin in a sculpture.  As the last sculpture settled in its space the work seemed to sing to each other.

Anji Jackson-Main / Justin Hawkes

These pictures don't exactly reveal the flow but hopefully give an idea of the connections and perhaps a little of their song.

Irena Willmott / Justin Hawkes