After five weeks, the Residue exhibition opened this evening, and, all in all, I was very pleased with how things turned out. (Click here for more photos from my installation).
The overall installation worked well as a whole, and the individual pieces in their own right, yet what was interesting about this installation was how the works changed and evolved once they were installed. For example, the cups (below) began to leak…
Clearly these cups are not designed to hold liquids for any length of time, and in particular the amount of water that was in each of them. So, my girlfriend Monika and I spent time removing water and in fact, as Monika said, the cups had more meaning with their varying amounts of liquid than when completely full; there was something more individual about them. And the fact they were leaking, becoming thin and ultimately disintegrating, was very apt in respect of my other works on mortality and memorialising. These ‘individuals’ (which the cups represent) are at different rates of time falling apart, at which point I remove them to the earth beneath the deckchairs (below).
This dialogue between the two works was, and is, very interesting. The earth beneath the deckchairs, which is actually compost, has always been a symbol of death – the final resting place into which mortal remains dissolve, so the fact there is now this dialogue between the two works accentuates aspect. Of course, those viewing the two works will have to be made aware of this fact, and the point of how much to explain to one’s audience comes once more to the fore.
Since the opening I have decided to re-write the information sheet I had made available to people and to edit down the blog to about twelve pages which can then be put on the wall, after all it is as much a piece of work as the works themselves. Putting it in a folder and leaving it on the table is all well and good, and indeed valuable, but displaying it this way makes it something of an accessory to the work when it is, as I’ve said, more important than that.