After constructing all my art works and sculptures, and deciding on a space, it was time to put it all together.
I began with starting on the Monday for the exhibition to open on the Friday. I chose to start earlier, in order to give myself time for any issues in setting everything up. I started by selecting the plinths I wanted to display my works on.
I wanted the plinths to have different heights, so it made the space more dynamic and interesting.
I also wanted to be more specific with the plinth heights so that it would accommodate the sculptures.
The piece “Invasions” was quite a tall piece due to the jar, however I wanted it to be on a taller plinth, so that the visitors could look inside the jar and see the brain, with the plant entwined.
For the piece “Blooming Tumour, I wanted it to be displayed on a shorter plinth, so that visitors could look on top of the agar brain and see the mould and plant growing.
For the final sculpture "Angiogenesis", I wanted the plinth to be a medium height, for similar reason to the agar brain, and also to allow visitors to look into the mirror to see the brain detail.
Once selecting the plinth, I began to paint over them to ensure all the marks were covered up and it looked clean and professional. I then began to place the plinths and sculptures in situ.
At first I was going to have them mainly central and close together, however I began to reconsider this as visitors would not be able to walk around the plinths and it would make the space seem slightly empty.
For this reason, I chose to space out the plinths in a right angle so that they would be connected, but also leave an opening for visitors to walk in and around.
When placing the pieces, I began to consider their connections. I wanted the AR filter to be connected to the piece “Invasion”, as the filter is based on that 3D printed brain.
I also wanted the time/lapse piece to be connected to the piece “Blooming Tumour”, as the time lapse depicts the growth of the agar brain.
Once placing the plinths, I then needed to construct my artworks. Since creating the pieces at home, I found it easy to build the pieces in the exhibition.
Originally, I considered having a projection on the back wall, however when testing this out, I found that it hit against the plinths, thus affecting the visibility of the video, for this reason, I just stuck to projecting on the two side walls.
For the wall text, I first thought to print it out and stick it on a wall, however it occurred to me how untidy that would look, my tutor Mark Roughley suggested projecting the wall text. I considered this option, but then thought to use the TV, as the projector may make it difficult to read properly.
After exploring the positioning of my works, I then had to consider lighting. When first considering to exhibit, I had never considered the importance of lighting, and the impact it can make to sculptures.
For this reason, I decided to consult with Martin Gee to assist in altering the lighting and provide his guidance, due to his experience with setting up exhibitions.
I found reaching out to Martin was extremely beneficial to setting up my exhibition, due to his experience. He made some very useful suggestions regarding the lighting, particular as some of my sculptures had a light source.
As well as having the help from Martin Gee, I also had guidance from Mark Roughley, who suggested some very creative ideas, such as changing the colour of the lighting to echo the Gleolan substance of purple and magenta with my piece “Angiogenesis”.
I found that things were really starting to come together. The next element was the projectors and TV system. I began to project my video and AR filter, and found that there was no sound coming out from the video. I then attempted to present my video on the TV to see if there was any sound. However, I began to see that the TV would come out grainy with an odd green tint.
I began to question the use of technology with my exhibition, and considered having a back-up by printing out my wall text and showing my video on a projector and have the sound come out from another source.
Before making any decisions, I contacted Martin Gee to see if the TV was fixable. He assured me that it was, and that the issue with the TV was the length of the cable, and the issue with the projector was simply the speaker was not connected properly.
This definitely taught me about not giving up, thinking of another option, and instead source help before considering alternatives.
Overall, I was really pleased with the display of the exhibition, and impressed to see how professional it looked. Now all that is left is to open the exhibition to LJMU staff and students.