Collect Trip:
Although this was a visit for curation, I chose to take pictures of these because I was taking somewhat inspiration from them. I liked that I was able to relate aspects of my designing like form material and colour to multiple different styles of craft. I had lots of fun seeing how multiple disciplinaries come together in my mind to give me inspiration; I love seeing how different materials can be used to create somewhat similar outcomes. I will say that I did somewhat struggle to find tonnes of inspiration because majority of the things at collect were sculptural, wearable or installations and as I am a studio potter, I did struggle.
However there were a couple that I liked in relation to the curation. The third image in in the photo grid is a good example of how different styles and forms of piece can be curated on a shelf. I really like the contrast of the pale vessels and the wooden shelf, I love how it naturally and effortlessly makes the pieces stand out.
Positive Curation:
I really liked how this artist curated her work; each piece stood alone, which made you stop and really see the vessels, giving them a strong sense of presence and impact. The way they were dotted around the room allowed me to envision them in a variety of settings, particularly domestic ones. I could easily imagine them on a windowsill or placed on low tables like a coffee table, which made the work feel familiar and approachable. This piece in particular resonated with me the most; I was fascinated by the level of skill and beauty the artist was able to achieve in the pots.
TAP Exhibition:
As said in the other pages, I was selected to take part in a student led exhibition and before this, I had never even thought about promoting my work, never mind curating it!. TAP itself is all about independent curation so that the artist can display their work how they see fit. I think that going to collect did somewhat help me as just being in that world as a whole developed my idea of curation even if I didn't get any direct inspiration from it. Initially, all I knew was that I wanted a plinth to display my work on. Once I had my pieces I laid them on the plinth and tried many different arrangement. The main thing that I realised was that the bigger items were completely drowning out the smaller vessels. I chose to go down to plaster and make almost 'mini plinths' so that I could elevate my cups and mug. Overall, I was extremely happy with the outcome as I felt it was clean and made every single piece stand out perfectly. I feel like the TAP preparation really allowed me to think about how I want to curate my work. It helped me think about what I want to highlight about my work and what my personal style with regards to presentation is.
Thoughts about curation following tutorial:
Vision: Inspiration for 2 ideas I was playing around with above (accessed on Pinterest)
Practice/Mock Curation Session:
I found this session useful as it was good preparation for the degree show curation. I presented my work the same way I did eat tap a few weeks prior so it wasn't massively influential in terms of having to think about the setup. In hindsight, I wish I had tried another style of curation however it was good to get some feedback on this one still as it's good to see what other people think. The main bit of feedback that I got was that I should consider shelving especially for the cups and I agree with this. I also four it interesting to see how other people curated their work and objects as that did make me think about how I could develop my ideas.
Ideation & Development:
After much deliberation as well as feedback, I think I am more moving towards shelving for my degree show curation. I'm leaning towards this because I think that it will best show the most favoured part of my work which is the glazing. Putting it on a shelf will show off the work I have put into the glazing and I especially want to show it off because it is such a big element of my craft as it serves as a vessel for my artistic communication. This is especially more suited now that I am moving towards just showing cups at the degree show.
For material I am leaning more towards wood because I think it would bring more of a homely warmth to my pieces. I think that this is important for my work because my pieces are made for domestic settings, they are made to be used, shared and loved and I want to convey that with my presentation (examples of vision seen above). I think its important for me to think about where I envision my pieces because its not just a purpose of these cups, its the whole essence of my craft.
For the brackets, my initial idea was to have exposed metal brackets that are potentially brass. Brass fittings first came to my head because it will allow me to keep to the natural/exposed material look but it also goes really well with the colouring of the pots. the new glaze that I bought, Amaco Ancient Jasper, has deep red and metallic undertones so I feel like introducing subtle brass details will really eventuate that and make those aspects stand out.
Vision: Colour Schemes and Textures I could play around with: Pinterest*
Copper Brackets - Amazon
Meeting With Lille Tew:
Sketch brought to meeting
in the tutorial with Lillie, I discussed my plans to display between 10-12 pots. The plan would be to have 2 shelves with around 5 cups on. I think that shelves are my preferred curation method because I think that you will be able to see the dynamic landscape of the glaze across the different pots better. I also thought about possibly having a few pots on something circular. I think I wanted to add this aspect because my cups are designed for domestic settings and I feel like having few of them clustered will really show that in a lovely way. I have been toying with possibly making the circular element a wooden tea tray so that the viewers can really get that visual link.
I think that no matter what, I want to add some warmth and homeliness somehow to this curation as I feel like just having them on shelving feels quite cold and separated from a domestic setting. However, I think the wood will really bring a bit of that warmth I'm after.
Further Ideation:
Thinking about my curation, I have recently been toying with the idea of including all of the cups for degree show. I think I am really considering this because I think the cups have so much power when you see them as a group. Initially I was thinking's about having them on something circular and all in one big cluster. I tried out putting my pots in a large cluster and I liked how they looked but I didn't like how you couldn't see any of the detail of the glaze. This is when I came up with the idea of splitting them so that I can show off both aspects; the refined and dynamic glaze on the surface as well as the craftsmanship of making a repeated high volume of vessels. this is especially important to me because I really want to exhibit my full scope of skills as studio pottery will be the professional field I will hopefully be going into after university. Also I feel like just showing a few pots won't represent the weeks and weeks of hard work I went through to get to this point.
Visualisation: Clustered and shelf placements
I really like this curation plan as I feel like it is simple enough that can show off the pots and not drown them out. Although simple, I think it perfectly hi lights the key aspects of my project to the perfect extent. As I like this placement, I have chosen to present my final submission I the same way as this plan because I truly believe that it is what suits my pots best.
