An effective presentation method is what seperates a good piece from a great piece. Every piece of art needs to be installed one way or another, this installation needs to cater to the functional needs of the piece e.g. a large piece needs enough space for itself and the viewers and a digital piece needs to be at least somewhat close to a plug socket. An art installation also requires thought given to the aesthetic needs of the piece such as the colour of the wall behind a painting. Finally I would state that the presence of the piece in the gallery should be unique and original, this is imperative in getting your piece noticed.
A presentation method that has been suggested to me by my tutor and that I have observed my peers utilizing is the plinth. A tall, heavy base that can hold delicate works of art, usually ceramics due to their, beautiful, fragile nature. One artist who used a plinth to showcase their work was Palermo in his piece ‘Two sculptures in a room’. Here, the plinths are the same colour as the sculpted visages and really bring the piece together and off the ground.
This piece is from 1971, the two busts depict the head and neck of the artist Gerhard Richter, shown on the left in this photograph of the work, and his friend the German artist Blinky Palermo shown on the right. The piece was created for practical purposes, to decorate one of Richters’ rooms but is also a commentary on the anti-aesthetic attitude of the time, Richter stated ‘Maybe it was a polemic against the zeitgeist of egalitarianism, pluralism and this whole anti-aesthetic debate. Maybe we made those heads and lauded the classical in order to be polemical, against the time’. They also clash pop art and classical art together, according to Richter.
Like in this art piece that uses (174 cm tall) plinths, my artwork would certainly grab the viewer’s attention, the small scale of the miniatures would make added height beneficial, especially for those will trouble bending down. They would also be relatively cheap and easy to construct, probably only requiring wood, paint and nails. One aspect that would be less ideal would be that a few other artists in the gallery will be using plinths, making my work stand out less from the crowd. This could mitigated if I designed the plinths to be different, much taller or shorter and using different colours and materials. I would also need space to put them but this would not be challenging at all as they can be placed in ‘open space’, not requiring a wall, plug socket or window.
Possible presentation method, taking the plinth a step further:
How fitting that the box itself could be repurposed as a plinth, displaying what it had been, for so long, hiding?
Those are the varied advantages and disadvantages of the plinth so I have decided to look into shelves and the possibility of utilizing the walls of the gallery space instead of the floor. Shelves come in all shapes and sizes and would be trickier to set up as they would require a wall fitting such as glue, nails, screws or even string. I would have to be careful when deciding the height to place them so as to cater to everyone attending the show. I would also need to consider the materials, wood would be heavy duty but stable whereas card or cardboard would be easier to set up without permanently altering the gallery such as with drilled holes. I have also observed my peers using this method so I would need to be careful of presenting my work the same way as them, undermining not only my own work, but also theirs.
One artist who creatively uses shelves in his work is Michael Samuels, a British artist who explores such subjects as 60’s british living spaces, furniture of the future and precariousness (see his work ‘Erector set’). In his piece ‘Spitzweg 1 & Spitzweg 2’ I observed that he incorporates the wooden shelf into the piece itself. The way they jut out from the wall and branch off into seemingly random directions and forms is perfect and is nicely juxtaposed with the mathematical precision of the right angles and asymmetry.
The light weight and small size of my pieces make them ideal candidates for shelving wood or metal would be unnecessary, simple card or plastic glued to the wall would work nicely. It would also look aesthetically pleasing, especially if I was to incorporate the cardboard from the box that housed the miniatures previously. Despite this, I believe the plinth to be more majestic looking, drawing attention to the pieces and centering them. The pieces are so miniature that they might be easily missed up against the wall, especially if the shelves were the same colour as the wall, which I think would be best, they would look incongruous if they were a separate colour to the backdrop.
The plinth and the shelves are simple, reliable methods that will be in widespread usage at the final show. To keep my options open and varied, I should consider a more creative, less traditional presentation method. One method I thought of that could surprise the viewers as well as add a level of interactivity would be to place the miniatures around the studio, not at random, but in out-of-the-way spots that people would begin to notice as they explored the space. I would not want to hide them, only add a sense of treasure hunting, this could also act as a metaphor for recalling an old memory piece by piece.
An inspiring artist that has placed his work sporadically around the gallery space rather than keeping it in a confined area is Brian Griffiths, a British artist that creates contemporary sculptures, often reusing found objects to juxtapose the subject matter such as a cardboard computer station. Present in his piece ‘Bill Murray: a story of distance, size and sincerity’ is a sense of sprawling grandeur that dominates the space, creating several different pieces that are all connected and constitute the work that is ‘Bill Murray: a story of distance, size and sincerity’. The piece explores the interior and exterior life of celebrities, it’s only fitting to use one of the most famous, Bill Murray, to illustrate this point and contrast the human face of the man with the overdramatized face of the celebrity.
The main advantage going for this method is the originality, I don’t believe any of my peers will be using it, they will all be confining their pieces to small areas around the room. It would also be aesthetically pleasing to see these small guards standing stoically all around the gallery, it could take the piece to another level. Despite all this, it might be confusing and messy. I would also need to construct some sort of platform to hold the miniatures, making this a risky choice with the short amount of time til the upcoming show.
Word count: 1179
Ozzy Chambers' blog 