thoughts on installing visual poem boxes for text festival
I said I might talk about my thoughts on installing my work for the Text Festival.
The install was three weeks ago now. Philip Davenport was curating the work at Bury Transport Museum. A little beforehand he asked if I could produce a small number of larger visual poem boxes to go with the rest. I made five new boxes at 12cm x 12cm - already documented.
Despite never having installed my own or anyone else's work anywhere before - well except for the sound installation at Kraak which I've only just this minute remembered. But in that case the main considerations were where are the sockets, and how does it work acoustically? Despite never having installed anything previously - with that single exception - I wasn't anxious about it. I knew I had plenty of time and I knew I'd get feedback from other people.
When I went over to install the work I met Philip and Tony Trehy at the Wonder Rooms which was still being hung. Tony mentioned something that he's subsequently blogged about. This is that visual poets will generally not have thought about how their work might be exhibited beyond viewing online or printing on a small piece of paper. When they do exhibit work it's usually based on an out-of-date idea of what they think an exhibition should look like and doesn't reflect current curatorial practice.
I'd certainly never considered how my work would or should be displayed. Now the majority of my visual poems are created as objects - even when they're ink on paper - and especially so when they're the visual poem boxes. I even created (and subsequently burned) a wooden version of one of the boxes for the menu for murmur show last year. But despite this, and despite working with three-dimensional objects, I still hadn't considered these matters.
It was exciting to see a large chunk of Wonder Rooms and of Map of You at the Transport Museum ahead of the opening. And to hear the thoughts of Tony and Philip on the reasoning behind some of the decisions made. But at the same time a little frustrating to feel I shouldn't give away any spoilers before the opening.
Having helped install one of Márton Koppány's pieces - basically by carrying it down a narrow gap alongside vehicles and helping lift it into a rail carriage - and had a quick look around what was in the Transport Museum at that point - I started to install my work.
At first I was a bit conservative and static with the arrangement of work. But then moving about inside the carriage, and hopping over the fence to have a look from the 'platform' it slowly dawned on me that I could make a much greater use of the three dimensional space. The depth, width and height of the carriage.
I also realised that as well as having the boxes and different angles I could have the faces with the designs on aligned differently. So a large box with a front facing design might have a smaller box with an upward facing design on top of it.
Then there were considerations of how to arrange the boxes in relationship to each other, to the large crates and their labels in the carriage, and to the chalk lettering and other visible features of the interior. The main relationship were with the crates - because that couldn't be avoided - and between the visual poem boxes themselves. Both the boxes and the designs.
So I jumped back in and rearranged. Part of my thinking was to create lines - or rather curves - linking boxes. And at the same time to create curves continuing designs - separate from the curves linking the boxes. I'm not especially concerned that these are visible, my intention was to try and create a dynamic arrangement that helped your eyes explore the space.
I may have failed, my approach may have been completely wrong. I was simply approaching it as a new challenge in an area where I have no experience. It was all but impossible for me to look at the work critically on the day I installed, and still too close at the opening.
All that said I have always liked the idea of the boxes - and of some of my other work - the small clay idols for instance - being hidden in spaces and among other exhibits. It's just that I hadn't considered the difference thinking about a three-dimensional space makes. And this is as someone who's been working with three dimensional objects for a while now. I can see even more clearly the challenge that Philip and Tony must have had with the work of visual poets.
Philip mentioned in conversation - and I think either Derek Beaulieu or Christian Bök wrote in a blog - that it will be interesting to see what comes from Wonder Rooms in particular. How visual poets will respond to seeing their work in a gallery setting alongside other visual poetry - and with larger, more confident (and in some ways more competent) visual works in neighbouring spaces.
Although I have no concrete ideas at present I'm already beginning to look at my work differently. With regard to the visual poem boxes that's also at least in part due to interesting suggestions that have been made.
The install was three weeks ago now. Philip Davenport was curating the work at Bury Transport Museum. A little beforehand he asked if I could produce a small number of larger visual poem boxes to go with the rest. I made five new boxes at 12cm x 12cm - already documented.
Despite never having installed my own or anyone else's work anywhere before - well except for the sound installation at Kraak which I've only just this minute remembered. But in that case the main considerations were where are the sockets, and how does it work acoustically? Despite never having installed anything previously - with that single exception - I wasn't anxious about it. I knew I had plenty of time and I knew I'd get feedback from other people.
When I went over to install the work I met Philip and Tony Trehy at the Wonder Rooms which was still being hung. Tony mentioned something that he's subsequently blogged about. This is that visual poets will generally not have thought about how their work might be exhibited beyond viewing online or printing on a small piece of paper. When they do exhibit work it's usually based on an out-of-date idea of what they think an exhibition should look like and doesn't reflect current curatorial practice.
I'd certainly never considered how my work would or should be displayed. Now the majority of my visual poems are created as objects - even when they're ink on paper - and especially so when they're the visual poem boxes. I even created (and subsequently burned) a wooden version of one of the boxes for the menu for murmur show last year. But despite this, and despite working with three-dimensional objects, I still hadn't considered these matters.
It was exciting to see a large chunk of Wonder Rooms and of Map of You at the Transport Museum ahead of the opening. And to hear the thoughts of Tony and Philip on the reasoning behind some of the decisions made. But at the same time a little frustrating to feel I shouldn't give away any spoilers before the opening.
Having helped install one of Márton Koppány's pieces - basically by carrying it down a narrow gap alongside vehicles and helping lift it into a rail carriage - and had a quick look around what was in the Transport Museum at that point - I started to install my work.
At first I was a bit conservative and static with the arrangement of work. But then moving about inside the carriage, and hopping over the fence to have a look from the 'platform' it slowly dawned on me that I could make a much greater use of the three dimensional space. The depth, width and height of the carriage.
I also realised that as well as having the boxes and different angles I could have the faces with the designs on aligned differently. So a large box with a front facing design might have a smaller box with an upward facing design on top of it.
Then there were considerations of how to arrange the boxes in relationship to each other, to the large crates and their labels in the carriage, and to the chalk lettering and other visible features of the interior. The main relationship were with the crates - because that couldn't be avoided - and between the visual poem boxes themselves. Both the boxes and the designs.
So I jumped back in and rearranged. Part of my thinking was to create lines - or rather curves - linking boxes. And at the same time to create curves continuing designs - separate from the curves linking the boxes. I'm not especially concerned that these are visible, my intention was to try and create a dynamic arrangement that helped your eyes explore the space.
I may have failed, my approach may have been completely wrong. I was simply approaching it as a new challenge in an area where I have no experience. It was all but impossible for me to look at the work critically on the day I installed, and still too close at the opening.
All that said I have always liked the idea of the boxes - and of some of my other work - the small clay idols for instance - being hidden in spaces and among other exhibits. It's just that I hadn't considered the difference thinking about a three-dimensional space makes. And this is as someone who's been working with three dimensional objects for a while now. I can see even more clearly the challenge that Philip and Tony must have had with the work of visual poets.
Philip mentioned in conversation - and I think either Derek Beaulieu or Christian Bök wrote in a blog - that it will be interesting to see what comes from Wonder Rooms in particular. How visual poets will respond to seeing their work in a gallery setting alongside other visual poetry - and with larger, more confident (and in some ways more competent) visual works in neighbouring spaces.
Although I have no concrete ideas at present I'm already beginning to look at my work differently. With regard to the visual poem boxes that's also at least in part due to interesting suggestions that have been made.
Comments