#disisserious

Indefinite (2014) Harry Watson

Dis. Is Serious: Curating Artworks:

We co-curated it through a series of tests, discussions and debates in terms of how we arranged the works. As Bobby Higginson's work was instillation that required the use of the bathroom space, it already had a fixed position within the exhibition. His artwork consisted of a audio recording, a paper based work and a performer showering naked. In this case it was the artist himself within the shower. The artwork was not intended to be so directly autobiographical that the artist had to be the performer, it just made sense in terms of cost for the artist that he would also be the performer. The audio artwork by Jem Williams then had to be balanced with the audio from Bobby Higginson’s work. We wanted the audience to enter the space and hear the work of Higginson initially. The audience would then travel through into the main space (i.e the living room) in which both works could be heard but mixed so that the audience would not feel they had to be silent to listen to works but instead were able to have conversations. The audience would then travel through the kitchen and into the spare room to hear Jem Williams work. To achieve this balance we placed the speakers for Williams artwork in the kitchen, facing away from the living room, towards the spare room. 

We initially intended for the sculpture by Jacob Harding to be in the living room but found that it took up to much space and turned the room into a corridor rather than a place where the audience can group together and talk. This meant we displayed Hardings work in the spare room. However we placed a drawing of the sculpture within the living room to play on the post-internet idea of how we now primarily view an image of something before viewing the physical object and what that means in terms of how we now view and experience artworks. 

The two digital works by myself, Siobhan Fedden and the co-curator Harry Watson remained. Watson had initially wished to display his moving image work on a tv within the kitchen sink and my photographic work was to be projected onto the living room wall, however through discussion we realized that the kitchen would be better suited as a walk through space rather than an exhibition space. Also, we felt that the living room required more than one artwork to fill the space. I also felt that my work has more impact on a small screen as it is such a striking image and the smaller screen had a better resolution quality to maintain the quality of my image, where as Harry Watson’s work was already a low resolution copy. The living room contained three artworks situated on walls/within shelving cavities, allowing the audience to move and fill the room. We chose to place the live web feed within the living room to capture the audiences experience. 

We had audience experience in mind when we chose to serve bananas within the exhibition. We wanted to serve wine and some snacks, in line with the standard provision at an art opening. Playing on the sexual connotations of many of the works, in particular considering the work of Harry Watson, we provided bananas for our audience to eat, with the intention of them being memorable and humorous. The bananas were also key when considering the live feed, which captured the main exhibition space in which Watson’s work, appropriated from a pornographic film, was exhibited and the audience watching, eating bananas. This action by the audience within the space also blurred the line between the audience being an audience and the audience being performers themselves as they were watched by an online audience. 

Dis. Collective: Exhibiting within student housing:

It’s nothing new within art history to view exhibitions within houses. Playing on these historical roots within curatorial practice, Dis. Collective has chosen to host art events within student housing as a means to conceptually explore what it means to be a student artist and the position of students within the art world. This is particularly poignant for me as I graduate this year. It also became very important for Dis. Collective through our experience as students when trying to create exhibition space. Finding a niche within Plymouth’s art scene, Dis. Collective looks to exhibit the work of students, and bring those interested in art together to network and experience new artwork through regular art events. This was our focus from the beginning of Dis. Collective but became more significant when working towards creating an exhibition we found that students are not seen as ‘professional artists’. This is clearly an issue for those who take the step of studying a degree in art to extend their knowledge, as they then struggle to get their foot in the door of the art world as those who have the ability to give students the step into the art world choose not to as they choose to not take students seriously as professionals. 

10, Hyde Park Road is a student property that I live in with four other tenants. To use this space I contacted the accommodation company that own the property to ask permission and through them contacted the landlord to ask his permission. In response, they informed me that for me to turn the property into an exhibition space I would have to purchase public liability insurance and I would not be allowed to profit from the events I host.