The Lobby- 2 hour hang group critique

The lobby- 2 Hour Hang; crit/discussion

Steven
Edith

So, what do you guys think... the overall look of the exhibition? There’s definitely a couple of things that stand out about it. You could talk about colours, shapes, pattern. There’s an interesting pattern going on. 

I especially like the corner, the idea of the fairytale going on. 

I think that’s something really interesting, you can actually tell stories, you can develop a narrative. You have Natalie’s sculpture... It looks like fairytale decapitation. And then this beautiful drawing of a girl, something a bit sinister there perhaps, Grimm’s fairytales.

Could I ask why you decided to turn the name of the exhibition sideways like that?

That’s actually one of the things I was going to point out that we failed at- we worked up to the last minute, and nobody had time to deal with that. It was only supposed to be 2 hours. In theory it should have had whatever it’s called with all your names on it. That’s what you should have had. And that’s one of my criticisms; when people walk in they don’t know what this is. What would have been nice if we’d had the time, which we didn’t, is having all of your names, and you could have had a map... but that’s a whole other job. Maybe the way we organised ourselves last week... That’s the kind of things that always trips you up; the text panels, the maps, the signage... The gallery will come up to you at the last minute saying ‘what about that wall panel?’ four hours before opening... But actually it’s the thing that people will read. They’ll come in and read that first. So I think you’re right to pick up on that. It was about the time... I think it’s nice that they just gave us two hours. Somebody talk about the colours!

I don’t like that bit (Maddy + Matt), because it’s black and white, and suddenly it’s colour. I think that should have been on the other wall, and something else there. I don’t want them to be there. So you should have had black and white, and then colour. 

Don’t take this as a criticism, but is that perhaps a bit simplistic about...? I think one of the arguments was about breaking this up, if I remember. Do you remember why we said that? There was a point when we were left with 4 or 5... And I think because they were quite small, and quite cute in size and colour, and then there were these big ones... I think you guys took one approach and did all the big ones first. And obviously there was some patterning going on... and we just had those two guys left. I think there’s a big of a diagonal going on with the sweets. But I think that’s interesting, you would have actually broken it into two...
What do you think about the method, how we did it? Do you think a process based approach is good?

I think they just put them into clusters didn’t they, they had that idea of how they were going to hang it, and I think that worked well.

You have to start somewhere and then see if it works. 

What would be another approach to how you would hang these?

Put them on the floor, and see how they respond to each other?

That’s actually how they did it... But Tom was very vocal about what he was thinking about a lot of the stuff, and he was really doing patterns, and was actually quite disruptive to the rest of the group... Which is fine! It’s his approach, there’s no problem with it. And I think sometimes you need a rhythm, it’s quite intense looking at artwork. So I think Liam’s piece is actually really well placed because it’s a really dark, intense piece of work, and actually it’s got a bit of breathing space. 

I like Liam’s piece there, but I think with Liam’s piece and my piece it could have been placed a bit differently. In my mind, if you were walking into this room you’d associate my piece with Liam’s piece... you wouldn’t necessarily think they were two different artists. I like where they’ve been put, but I think they could have had more breathing space. 

I felt that way about all of it... I wasn’t here for the hang and I don’t have an alternative... But I thought that they would be clustered, and I think that’s a bit obvious. I think like Lance was saying, it puts them into groups for the viewer, which isn’t maybe a good thing. 

So they alternative would be to literally do the classic hang?

I don’t know if that would be an improvement, but this is what I thought would happen. 

I think there’s a really interesting didactic in that you guys are talking about the artist... respecting the artist and the artist’s practice, and giving the artist breathing space... And then there’s the story and narratives, and I think the guys who were doing it were literally trying to make sense without thinking individually too much... Create an easy eye. How could a viewer come in and not just see a line, like you do in most galleries... Which is fine. There is a reason why people do that, some artists insist on it... Some of you might insist on it.

But I think if it were a deliberately themed show, then that would be the correct approach, but it wasn’t, and it’s trying to fit a theme and a template onto something that doesn’t have one. 

You’re absolutely right; Do you guys remember Animal Gaze? It was this very big show all about animals. So you had your theme... That was it. If there were animals, they were in the show. They literally hung it like this, put it together like this. And I struggled with that, because what you were doing, you were making associations. But it wasn’t like they put all the ducks over there, and the owls over here, but they did it... There was kind of the darker things here, and the big things had their own space. But that’s about exhibition design, and how do you articulate all of these artists’ practices in a larger whole. Whereas with this, it was half of you guys knowing each other, and half of you trying to make it have a narrative. In some senses, I think you’ve achieved that definitely.
In terms of the shapes of things- everything seems to be up and down, which is interesting. And I do think it’s very monochrome. If you got given this work from a selection... Say you’re a judge, and you chose all this work... How would you think about it in terms of.... How would your approach be. Would it be to get a ruler out?

For me, in my mind, I’d be looking at symmetry. But that’s just the way I work. 

What if it’s a performance?

I think even with performance it still works, that you can have symmetry within that, depending on how it’s placed in the room. 

Symmetry to me, the idea that they’re reflecting either, either to compliment or contrast, I like that.

I think there’s two things... I’ve worked in a gallery where that’s actually the rule, and at Tate Britain they had to have big corners... One painting per wall. But i think another aspect, because the gallery’s such a ripe place, such a contested space.... Does anyone understand what I mean when I say that, that the white cube’s a contested space? When I say contested, I mean it’s not a neutral space, it’s not a blank space. I think a symmetrical hang is pointing towards this sort of modernist approach, something they were doing in the 1950s. You’re almost complying to the modernist ideal. Now, I think within that there’s a lot of movement... Hence something like this is starting to potentially break that. It could be one approach, that you start to think how could you do that narratitively... Telling a story. Like you’ve got sweets and sweets, pretty straightforward, fairytale corner... But I think you’ve got to think about the spaces. The notion is site, context, situation. Basically there’s the notion that this is a site, as well as a gallery, as well as a situation. If you guys remember, we had Kensa’s maps, and we created a reading space here... As opposed to putting the maps up and treating them beautifully. I think it was really interesting that you wanted them handled... so that was suddenly a situation rather than the white cube thing.
So do you think this is a good show, a strong show? If it is, I think it’s got strengths and weaknesses.

I think with the time we had... What we had, I think it works really well. I didn’t realise how much it would change with walking through... It does make it a lot nicer, and more like you’re coming into an art space, rather than just blank walls. 

The way it’s been hung now feels slightly more personal... While we were doing it, there were those frantic two hours when we were making the exhibition of work that we had. We’ve not literally made is just like ‘here’s some artwork, have a look; we tried to give each piece a narrative. So I think just hanging it in one line would have given it a completely different feel, which in my mind wouldn’t have worked because it would have felt completely disconnected from the work. 

I like it. There’s not a lot that I would change. I do think that you have to be careful with the narratives, and how you put things together. But I generally... The way it’s been done with the levels, and the types of pieces that we have, there’s not a lot that I would change considering it’s one of our first group shows. 

I like it. I think I prefer this side, just because of the shapes of the room. I think it works better having this inward shape... I think the door on that side breaks things up a  bit too much. I think if that wasn’t there, and there was another piece there, then that would work much better. But I think it works well.

It’s interesting how the wall become a part of the space, and that door’s very disruptive, and we’ve deliberately pointed the lighting away from it. 

Maybe you could make it work... Just have a piece designed for the two doors.

What do you think is maybe missing, potentially?

What I like about it is the lack of professional framing.. I think it makes it very immediate, instead of mounts and frames getting in the way of it. 

Stylistically, absolutely. There’s something really nice, and very immediate, and the pinning; It’s very contemporary as well; that kind of immediate work. And it’s not grand-ising the work as well. Even the one that we have with glass in it, I think there’s something very alive about it. 

I think I agree about those two by the door; Not only are they a bit odd in that area, but you can’t really see them when you come through the doors. 

I actually think they look good together, but I think this wall is a void... They’re lost. They’re in a big space... Those two are close together, those two are close together, but there’s a big void in between.

They almost feel like individual exhibitions. 

That’s what would happen I think if you put all the colours on this side.

I think you need something on that wall (Maddy + Matt’s piece), I think it would feel empty if there was nothing on there. But what would you put there instead of those two?

I wonder what would happen if you’d put them on the doors. I wonder if you’d included the doors in the exhibition, and put the light son them, if they’d fade... The size of them, it could have worked.

It would be interesting because you’d have the line of whatever went there, and then the line of the door frame itself.

I’d say the fact that there’s  variety of styles.. It probably wouldn’t have worked so well if you’d done it in a conventional way.

I imagine there would have been a lot of tension... They would have almost been arguing against each other. In a way, I’d love if we had the time to do a classic hang like an exercise. 

I think that bit looks like they fit together really well, and the rest don’t, those three there. 

They’re almost like three photographs.

I just realised sitting down here- the glass ones, the light is not very good. I like that they’re not as high as the gallery because I don’t like peering up. I like that it’s not the line of God...

Do you remember when we went into British Art Show, and you were saying you really love that there was this beautiful line, and then it changed a bit. And there were the small things on the floor that moved up as well, so you had this different patterning. 

That’s what I mean about symmetry. You can have the disjointed symmetry, and it still has these different levels.

You could have areas of uniformity maybe, rather than think of the whole thing as uniform. You could potentially have four hanging, and then start to do this grouping again. 

I think it does work... I just don’t like that wall (Maddy + Matt)

I think it should be instinctive. There’s an element of being theoretical, and then I think there’s a thing where you just know in your gut that that doesn’t work right for you, and when you’re hanging your shows and working with other artists and seeing people hanging your work you’re just like ‘no, that needs to be moved left’. It’s an instinctive thing. You can’t explain it; it’s just what you see in your head. 

I don’t know if it’s because of the security thing next to it...

They look less important don’t they, being shoved into that little space.

There is no right or wrong, this is totally an experiment. And also, every space will be different... Every time. You’ll have a warehouse, like the Vessel, that was very warehousey. 

Tht hing I like is the thing that puts me off a bit as well.. I like that it’s set out in patterns, but if I look at that wall, I find it a bit overpowering. (Main wall) That bit’s not so bad, butI find that area too much ot look at.. I’m not sure where I’m looking. And Liam’s piece beneath Lance’s, I think that seems a bit lost over there. I look there and I’m immediately drawn to the one above it. 

Don’t think of it... It was within the timeframe we had. But I liked how you resolved things, and how everyone just accepted. Especially the guys working on it were like ‘this is how we’ll do this, it’ll work like that, it’ll work like that...’ and I was amazed, there weren’t actually any arguments... there was a bit of Mrmrgrrrmrr. But that was about it. 

At the moment, I’ve ranged it into colour ranges. So at the moment it’s like pale grey, intense, colour, a bit more colour, mixed. And I don’t think that the work at the bottom should have been there (Liam’s), I think it should have been with the other piece. I don’t think it worked with Lance’s piece at all. Lance’s work is busy, and in your face, and you kind of jump into it, and the other, you just think ‘well, why is that there?’

Can you remember why we split those up? Oh it was the shape wasn’t it, because one goes up and one goes like that... It was a big ‘L’ wasn’t it. This corner was figured almost, and that had come together, and we just had that gap left... It was a bit like a square peg in a round hole. And that happens as well unfortunately.

I like this wall, I don’t like this. (Main wall vs. Wall with door)

I don’t like those two together (Lance + Liam). I think they’re two quite heavy pieces of work... I just think something lighter needed to be around. 

Or recognise that they’re two very dense pieces of work, and they need their space. 

I just don’t like this whole wall, when I first came in I noticed that wall (Main wall)

The other thing to think about it how you move around the space, and how you want other people to move around the space. And I suppose as soon as you walk in, the immediate thing is ‘oh that’s great’ (Main wall), and then you’re by the door before you even realise there’s stuff round here. But then, this is a corridor, it’s not a cube. 

Well I wasn’t here for the hanging, but when I came in it did look like it had been ‘put together’, to be looked at, rather than it just being pieces of work. I did enjoy it. Other than a few bits that have been pointed out, I did think that they went well together. 

That’s interesting, you coming at it unknowing, and actually thinking there’s been a bit of trouble gone into this. 

If I was involved in it, I’d want something big, and possibly not square put in the middle of that wall (Back wall with door), instead of the uniformity.

So don’t roll over because some of the spaces are challenging...

I think what this wall could  have done if you’d had more smaller works- I mean, you could call the artist and say ’could we have another one?’- But you could also have a similar kind of hanging as you have here, and that could have pulled them more together. And then t hose two little ones could have maybe been integrated in a similar king of hanging as there is on that wall (Main wall.)