REVIST REMAKE- EXPLORE

Preparation Task

For the preparation task I remade John Everett Millais' Mariana, I was inspired to remake a pre raphaelite painting as they are so beautiful and inspired mostly by nature which I thought would be easy to modernise by turning it more urban. I found this painting and related to her stance as my desk chair is VERY uncomfortable and after working I need to stretch a lot. So I remade her as an illustrator instead of a tapestry worker and changed the scenery and outfits to fit more into todays age.

ZANDRA RHODES: A LIFE IN PRINT- THE HOLBURNE MUSEUM

 I visited the exhibition Zandra Rhodes: A Life in Print at the Holburne Museum with Izzy Molly and Xena, the venue is situated in Bath and majority of the rooms are dedicated to the art collection of Sir William Holburne, but it also hosts an array of temporary more modern exhibitions in its purpose built spaces. As the venue is a big museum it has a whole curatorial office who selects the majority of work to be displayed, however for this specific exhibition they worked with Curator Rosemary Harden who specialises in dress curation and previously managed the Fashion museum in Bath. 

"Working with Rosemary Harden to put A Life in Print together has been incredibly inspiring. Together, we carefully selected key pieces from my historical collections where print dominates and defines the shape and flow of the garment."- Zandra Rhodes

The Zandra Rhodes exhibition was presented on the 1st floor in quite a wide room which typical houses flemish portraits, it was easy to know that we were in the right location because at the entrance of the building they had a mural of this exhibition, with an interactive QR code that you could scan for a snap chat filter, I thought that this was effective as a way of promoting it as visitors can share their experience online.

The exhibition was a showcase of Rhodes' screen printed garments from the 60s-80s. They were displayed chronologically starting with her Buttonflower dress and showing how she developed her practice over time- this was a great way to show how her work changed and progressed in a way the audiences can clearly see. There were also plaques explaining the piece with QR codes for its own audio tour!

 

The dresses were displayed on mannequins that were more life like (and much more interesting) than the average one you see in shops. They were designed by Adel Rootstein who was an important mentor to Rhodes, I felt that the mannequins combined with the wigs and of course her garments gave the figures more character and this was effective in making them seem alive and thus I was able to envision them outside of the exhibition. The mannequins vintage vibe also worked well with the aesthetic of the room (which was unchanged from its original state) and the works themselves. The poses that they were in made it feel less static and gave the display fluidity and liveliness. The main showpiece was a garment worn by a mannequin posed on a bed. I really enjoyed this choice as it enhanced the shape of the garment and the headboard of the bed nicely contrasted with the colour of the dress with the patterns complimenting it too. Overall, although quite a small exhibition, I really enjoyed it and started to see how there's a lot of thought put in to curating a cohesive display like this!

THE EVERYWORLD EXHIBITION- UNDERSHED

We visited The Everyworld exhibition at Undershed! Undershed is an exhibition space on the ground floor of Watershed which typically showcases immersive and interactive artworks and claims to be one of the few spaces in the UK dedicated to doing so. We found out about this exhibition through a leaflet at Watershed but they also have an instagram promoting it and there are a few Bristol orientated articles doing the same.

On arrival I quickly spotted a model of the exhibition space which was very helpful to let me know where all the screens were and how big the space was, making it a lot more accessible. In fact Undershed was very accessible overall, the guide told us what to expect from the VR gave us the option of skipping it, using headphones and she also gave us a vertigo warning as it starts and ends on a cliff: accessibility is definitely a key consideration when curating an exhibit such as this.

What first stood out to me when entering the main space was the lighting: it was very ambient and low-key (compared to most galleries that have glaring overhead lights) I thought this was perfect for the theme of the exhibition as it made it feel more familiar and homely. 

We were then quickly guided into participating in watching a virtual reality experience, this was my first time doing something like this and it was super cool! It was like the exhibition gained several new rooms as the video took you through a tour of a farm house where the father- daughter artistic duo, Eden and Andrew Kotting, lived. This is also when I noticed that majority of the decor around the exhibition were things from their home so stepping out of it and seeing them in real life was very surreal and to me made it much more interesting. The VR piece was the most captivating part of the exhibition for me, it was 12 minutes long and showed the wonders of Eden's world from the perspective of her Rare neurological condition, the mix media of art and videography was really well done and every time I turned on their useful spinny stools I’d spot something different and captivating. The sound, which seemed to come from every direction, enhanced it to a 4D experience.

Overall I really enjoyed the attention to detail in this exhibit, down to the stickers on the benches and the sculptures from both videos dotted around, as well as of course getting to try and see how a VR experience might work together with a space. 

PANTHER MODERN - ONLINE EXHIBITION SPACE

LINK TO THE GALLERY

When looking for an international exhibition to research I stumbled across a completely virtual gallery called Panther Modern. I found it on Reddit as a recommendation for an online exhibition, but apart from that and a few articles there wasn't much promoting it, so it was a bit of a hidden gem.  I would argue that although not belonging to any specific country this is international as it exists purely online and includes a range of artists from multiple countries. They have taken the idea of an online gallery quite literally and converted it into a 3D rendered building- this got me thinking about what constitutes as a exhibition space as although appearing physical it is not.

As you click on each room it takes you to the work imagined inside of it.

No recent changes have been made but the original idea was to have an array of artists contribute and each time a new member joins a new room gets added to the building. I think this is a really cool concept as the building can constantly grow and change. 

The artist curator is LaTurbo Avedon, a virtual persona working in digital art realms, the art that they have chosen to display through commission fits in to this field of 3D modelled files and although all the rooms are quite different they share this rendered modern feeling and similar processes of making. 

One of my favourite 'rooms' was Room Fourteen by Jonathan Monaghan, I think it really goes to show how experimental and wild the artist can be by working in a virtual space as this would be pretty difficult to create in real life. We can also see that they have used the space really effectively the long, bright, tall area fits and enhances the sculpture perfectly and we can see that the 'audience' would have multiple viewing points from below and both sides to admire the work. 

Another example I liked is Room 9 by Mark Dorf as it is even more conceptual and impossible, yet it remains grounded in reality with typical things we might see in a real exhibition space such as the seating and walkways. 

I think that this exhibition example and the ones I visited in person has taught me that exhibiting can mean and be displayed in a multitude of different ways.