I finally took the plunge, threaded up the sewing machine and completed my piece for the interim show. I laid it all out before stitching it together, but I'm sure that some pieces ended up in slightly different places than originally planned.
Overall I was pleased, I think I managed to spread out the similar pieces such as the patchwork squares enough that they seemed to repeat at intervals, but not be overly prescribed or in any particular pattern. That was important, I wanted to odd piece to be individual and not repeated, some to be similar or the same print but one version to have an additional layer, and some to be slightly different versions of the same. This to me seems to echo the forest - lots of slight variations, but all along the same theme, with areas of space, areas of crowding and lots of hidden textures and detail that you have to look more closely to appreciate.
I was particularly pleased with the stick that I found. There were two that I brought home, the other was bigger, twistier and initially I thought preferable; but this one actually held the prints better by standing next to them rather than behind them as the other did. I really like the crooked bend in it that allowed it to do that. (The other would also definitely not have fitted on the tube - this one was struggle enough!).
Once I arrived The question of where to put it as part of the exhibition had to be established. My aim by bringing the stick was that it would be as flexible as possible. In reality, it turned out that I don't think anything was completely flexible! I quickly established that it needed to be against a white wall as the unpainted brick walls completely camouflaged the stick and the prints weren't very noticeable. I thought I'd found the perfect place, against a wide painted area of brick wall close to the door but then another student wanted to use that place for her projection. Finding a place seemed rather cut-throat... this student basically asked me to move my piece so that she could 'test' her projection on the texture of the brick and then on deciding she liked it refused to budge. I explained that I rather liked the texture as well and she airily waved me away saying I could find somewhere else while also repeating that she didn't mind where she went. It was all rather a strange situation. I went around the room and though that it looked OK against a thinner wall where it seemed more prominent somehow but another member of staff (who seemed very opinionated and not afraid to share her opinion) stated it wouldn't do and so it went all around the room before ending up right next to where it started but on the smooth wall (that both I and the projection girl had both taken a dislike to).
I didn't feel that it was a great place for it, it seemed diminished being in an area of wall that was set back, I preferred the contrast of the brick texture and the fact the brick projected forwards into the room seemed to frame it better and make it stand out. I've never had the opportunity to choose where my work goes before so I found the whole process really interesting and think I definitely learned some lessons. I was really pleased that I managed to identify a place that I thought it would look good in, even if I didn't get to put it there.
I wasn't upset that the work wasn't where I wanted it to be, I knew from that start that it was going to be an exercise in compromise and making the best of it. I thought that some of the other works in the show ended up in fantastic locations that really worked for them (especially the lobsters!) and that many others would have looked better elsewhere, or next to something else. Overall it just goes to show how hard it is to curate a show, especially if there is a huge myriad of work as there was here and no overall vision.
The other lesson that I think all my course mates learned was how fantastic our tutor is. Jonathan really empowered us to make our own decisions and think about where our individual pieces would look at their best. He couldn't always facilitate that but the education gained from doing that was fascinating. We also met each other in person for the first time, saw each others work in the flesh and very quickly became supportive champions for each other which was really wonderful.