...The End Of "Undercurrent"....

We have had our last ever exhibition of "Undercurrent" as it was officially closed by the Mayor of Grimsby tonight!!! It was really nice to have my family and a few friends there to be a part of what has been a truly interesting experience for me. It was also great that Graeme made it to this one and was taking pictures and I think he's proud of what we have achieved. Third year students also came to show their support and it was nice to show them, my family and friends around our exhibition before kicking back and enjoying a few drinks together with my fellow 53 degrees artists. I had brought along my p.a. to put on some background music and also to sing a little and Monica had provided the buffet! It was unfortunate that, again, some of the members of 53 degrees didn't come. And it was also unfortunate that there were not that many people came along. What can I put this down to? Well, The members of the group that were there didn't bring any guests and to be honest, if ALL 9 members had attended and brought just 2 people along with them that would be 27 people at least! This is how the Facebook site pretty much went. It just seemed that some people just couldn't be bothered after the Steel Rooms. The effort was gone after that. The organisation of everything was left to a skeleton crew and at times I had no idea what was going on at all. If I were part of a group again I would ensure that EVERY person had a roll and did that roll to their fullest. To pull something like this off every person has to be 100% committed! I know that we all have other work to do as well as our own personal lives, but there were 9 of us! The work that was needed by each individual was not that much. Each person could have played to their own strengths and have been given the appropriate roll. I'm not saying that I am perfect, but I am saying that the effort put in by some was minimal and by others waned halfway through to the point of not really being in the group at all with nothing to show nor anything to contribute to the team to not even supporting the team by not even showing up to the final shows opening or closing. I know that some of the members worked particularly hard in their rolls and achieved them superbly, but could it have been a momentous exhibition if every single person put in as much effort? YES!!! Would i be a part of a group again?....it would depend on who I was working with. The artists would have to be of  a professional manner and I would be extremely careful to make sure that everyone was committed to making it the best show ever, by inspiring each other along the way.
Anyway, a true learning experience from 6 months of work...
I just wanted to say that I felt humbled by the staff of Central Hall especially Howard for all of his professionalism towards us and I feel that in some way we let him down with our blind stumbling over what could have been a great exhibition....

...Powerpoint Presentation...

I have spoken to Graeme today by email about my Powerpoint presentation I'm doing next week. I have this idea that I would film myself asking the questions to myself and answering them, so I would be effectively two people doing the presentation! I got quite excited about this! It would be far more interesting and I would be able to make the timing absolutely perfect at 10 minutes exactly and keep within the boundaries of what the brief of the presentation is, eg it can have film in it, but it doesn't say that the film can't be the full 10 minutes long! However after talking to Graeme it seems that this is too ambitious and it's not really required. So.....I now have to seriously think about what to put into the presentation.. It has basically got to be a brief outline of this....this blog I have been doing really....hmmmmm the mind is ticking....

End Of Show Party Invitation...

Its Almost the end!!!.........After talking to the guys, we decided that we would make the last day of the 53 Degrees Exhibition "Undercurrent" a bit of a party for ourselves and to invite our friends and family also to join us in celebrating our first ever group exhibition. I have set up a Facebook event for the end of show party and invited the friends that I think would be interested in coming. We will also be having a raffle to donate to Central Hall and I will be providing the entertainment! I'm already looking forward to it!! oh, and Howard has said that we could use the bar upstairs too!!!

Chronicle Meeting...

I popped along to Central Hall to give an interview to the Cleethorpes Chronicle about the exhibition. Nice lady, took a couple of pictures by my own work, holding a booklet! I really don't understand why we never had any local media at the other exhibitions. I don't know who was in charge of that, I should do, but I just assumed that someone was getting the press involved, I know that we spoke about press statements in class and that someone was taking care of it, but it never seemed to pay off. Anyway, I just rang the Telegraph and the Chronicle myself and they had no problem in coming down to interview and take pictures. The whole amount of time put into this was at the most 10 minutes. 10 minutes and we had publicity to a few thousand people for free!

Central Hall Starts...

After a pretty enjoyable day yesterday setting up the exhibition, we officially opened the final 53 degrees exhibition this evening!! It was great to see students and tutors from uni who came along to support what we are doing. It was, however, a shame that only 5 of the 9 artist of 53 degrees came along to the opening, especially as we all, (with the exception of 1) are based around Grimsby. I had contacted the Grimsby Telegraph about a week before and arranged for a reporter and photographer to come down to the official opening by Mr Bradley, one of the (chairmen?) of the Central Hall at 6:30. After the opening speech we were interviewed and then we chatted with those that came to the show over wine and "nibbles". It was a really nice atmosphere and Mr Bradley was genuinely happy to see us there and our work and invited us to keep the exhibition on for longer or even come back and show more! This is exciting! We seem to have made a bit of an impact on this, our home town. It really does feel nice to have my work appreciated and that of those "core" members of the group.
p.s. after the exhibition I was invited along to take part in a gospel church that was being held in Central Hall. I decided to stay and see what it was about and ended up having a wonderful, spiritual communal time!!! Afterwards the members of the congregation had to go past our exhibition and I spent a further three quarters of an hour talking to people about our exhibition!!!
What I must say is that , I think we all know that we are never going to sell anything at this exhibition, it is more of a showing of our work. That I am happy with, especially with the fact that we are going to be publicized in the local papers with photographs of ourselves with our work. This exhibition is more of an advertisement for the group to say, "We're here" and that's all it needs to be. It would have been interesting if we had done the exhibitions the other way around...Grimsby...Lincoln...Brigg, because the Steel Rooms was the perfect place to sell our work, ( in my case, I lacked the confidence to put a proper price on my work to sell it.)
hmmm this is a good thought...an advertising show followed by a "proper"exhibition at a place where art is hung to be sold!
So tired now, got to slee..................

Central Hall Set Up

Today was the set up for the group exhibition at Central hall in Grimsby. I have to admit my first thoughts were that it may not be the right place to hold an exhibition. We were greeted by Howard who showed us where we could exhibit, but we ultimately chose the corridor which was a main walkway for every person that entered the building. After getting some boards to hang the work on, we spent the next couple of hours arranging where each piece would go. Unfortunately not all of the group came to set up and one person decided not to show any of their work, which in a sense meant that , to me , that person had nothing at all whatsoever to do with the exhibition or the group any more. I had chosen not to show the performances that I had intended to be a part of the exhibition but still brought something relative to the exhibition and the group. It feels that I'm whinging a bit, but it feels seems that all of the desire and excitement for the exhibition by the group has just diminished. The part of the group that were there today, hanging their work, putting in the time and effort to make something special about this, our last exhibition, are still bonded. It's almost like it's the core part of the group and those that appear to not be bothered any more are just on for the ride, something to add to their own cv at the expense of others hard work.