work at the LINK

So I have been part of two different exhibitions at the same time. Both exhibitions has been really hard work and the concepts so very different. I had one solo show in the Link gallery at MMU which was photography and artifact led and alos part of a collaboration show at BlankSpace in Manchester, at this one sculpture led.

The theme for the Link was based on my Lucien Fellowes project which involves a man who is lost within a cubicle of time and just sees snapshots of our time..the 3rd Dimension. He sees our road side markings as broken hieroglyphs and not as continuous lines. He denotes these markings as messages and is tryting to decode them. I believe that as Humans we leave traces; the traces that we leave are caught by Mr. Fellowes and he collects these remnants as talismans that binds us with him.

I have been working on this concept now for at least a year. It all started when I found a blue wheel nut laying at the kerb-side and then found another completely different wheel nut further down the road. I started to find and collect what I had found and this lead to photographing and archiving human traces which I have collected under the [facebook] umbrella title of; Lucien Fellowes and his Collection of Particulars. From this I have developed a side-line in road-side markings that which has been the focus of my creative mind.

After being allowed into the Link for a solo show, I have been througfh a tolling selection process and from a collection of over two hundred images I have selected 12. I have four A0 and 8 A1 prints all on Matt paper. I have then mapped out the link with a narrative and after a month of printing, rejecting, placing and then finally deciding where they'll go, the cabinet of artifacts had to be decided upon.

I wanted the Link to have a travelling museum aspect to it and had a dialogue from start (foyer) to the finish (entrance to the Holden Gallery) and I think I achieved what I set out. In the foyer was the artifact display, the small collection of Polaroids and the projector flashing black and white road-side markings. In the link was the dialogue of prints. The all where hung using jumbo-sized bulldog clips and looked professional.

I was happy with the excecution and thought I had done a good job of curating my first solo show. The concept was highly personal but I think I had achieved fluidity in the work. The titles that I had given the work where a little oblique and strange and I think I need to refine my concepts and how I explain to other people a lot more.