The opening night for the Chinese Whispers exhibition is the 25th August, Thursday. We are all supposed to be in the gallery as an open studio, we are open to the public and we are also supposed to be chatting to them and getting the space all sorted for the main event, which runs for at least four days. We are called Chinese Whispers because each artist has a link to the next and since mine involves shoes, the tenuous link is to another artist who makes paper shoes. That is the only link to my work.
As stated earlier, my exhibit is an allegory for life as we are born, live and die. Shoes are bought, worn and thrown away, the allegory for the cycle of life. As shown above in the collage, I have planned out the dressing of the room prior to getting a room that I want. I have fought for the room and I have got it. The mapping out of the room is contenious at the moment as I have two ideas and the deciding on what to do is going to have to be decided upon.
I want to eulogise the start and end of the cycle of the shoe, it is going to be like a pagan memorial to the items of attire. I am wanting the visitors to kneel down on a prayer mat in order to inspect the items. They are then transformed into Gods and Kings or a loved one.
The work that I do is apparantley concerned with the cycle of life and this may be evolution towards more stronger pieces for me. I have cornered myself in the minimalist/installation side of art and may need to broaden my scopes a little, even more towards degree time when the final show is being set up. I may need to talk this over with friends after the event next Thursday.
I'm trying to think of what artists that I have been influenced by for this project. Damien Hirst and his preoccupations with life and death, Emin's work concerning personal artifacts and after seeing The Life and Death of Marina Abramovich may have some effect on me. But mostly, even though I was planning this before I seen the exhibition, 11 Rooms have had a pronounced influence on this venture such like a tsunami.
Being given such a space to imprint your psyche upon is daunting but ever so thrilling. It propels the artist into another work ethic, exhibiting in a gallery space with other artists you can become lost but with your own space, you are alone and open to many interpretations. Obviously, the work does has to have communication with others and I think there is some gelling with my neighbours.
At the moment I have constructed the vessel/box that will hold the receptacles/shoes out of found wood and this has slots where lights will filter through. I want the room darken so the attention is on the exhibit with light from the box and from above. I am placing reflective glass on the box to seal the shoes within the construct, they are beginning to smell now due to being over worn for two months. This is further enhance the memorial/taxidermy aspect to the concept.
Having bought a frequency modulator/Roland 101 during the Summer, I will be constructing a sound collage to rumble at low frequencies behind the curtain to give ambience to the piece but I need to think hard about this as I don't want to distract from what I want to say.
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