For the interim show I basically want to have a dressing up box filled with all my costumes/wearable pieces that are in progress. I hope that the audience will feel like they can put them on and wear them while they look at the rest of the exhibition. The pieces themselves are going to be a variety of things including more clothing and fashion based pieces as well as pieces that abstract the senses.
This has obviously changed since then and for the show I am no longer putting any fashion/clothing based pieces in. I brought everything I had made recently on Thursday for set up, including a piece from last year as well as a couple of masks and two abstract textile pieces I have made this year. Me and Oliver had discussed potentially hanging my costumes on a rail alongside Jiji's work, as she is also submitting costume pieces. This would be instead of the dressing up box that I had proposed. I was happy with this as I found out from putting up my work is PS5 last year, a rail definitely brings the invitation for the audience to try on a wear the work. However, when I brought my work in for install there was no rail and I was worried about how my work was going to be shown. Curator Sophie came and spoke to me, and asked me which of my pieces I most wanted to be in the show, as there wasn't space to show all of my pieces I had brought with me. I chose the two most recent textile pieces as I feel the colours work well together and they are also the most abstract of my pieces. They are also the pieces that require the most curiosity from the audience in order to figure out how they can be worn because they are not obvious pieces of clothing.
Sophie asked if I was happy to have them hanging on a wall together on hooks with a sign next to them saying 'wear me', so that the invitation for the audience to put them on is there. Honestly I am happy with the way that Sophie envisioned my work and that we were able to work together to figure out what the best way for them to be shown was. It helped that I already knew that my pieces worked hanging on the wall as well as when they are worn from experiments in the studio. Obviously my work is being shown in a gallery context and whilst the invitation to wear them is being offered they are still being hung on a wall instead of being worn. Like I said before I am happy with this, because when they are hung on the wall they still spark the audiences curiosity just as much as if the audience saw them for the first time when they are being worn. There is also a sense of expectation and anticipation when they are hanging. Once you see someone wearing a piece its very difficult to imagine the piece as anything else other that how it looks when its worn. When its on the wall it can be anything. Thinking about my work in different contexts, I think that this is the same in both a gallery context and a festival context – people will find it hard to imagine the pieces as anything else once they have seen them on a person. As I found out last year from the interim show in year 2 people are less likely to interact with a work in a gallery environment unless there is some sort of sign saying they can. However at a festival because of the playful environment people are already in they do not need the same written invitation.
My work is in PS1, alongside a mixture of sculpture, painting and costume. Because of the colours people have used in their work, as well as subject matters and the way people have chosen to present their work, I think the room has a playful feel to it which works really well with my pieces. I haven't had a chance to look round the rest of the show yet but I am excited to see how this part of the show compares with the rest of the exhibition.
After the install Oliver contacted me to ask if I was happy for some of the guys from House of Daze - who are doing the Drag in the Gallery show during the closing event - to use some of my pieces for their performance. I am happy for the house of Daze guys to perform in my pieces without any direction from me as I am curious to see how they use my pieces in another context. The fact that Oliver contacted me to ask me if they could, shows that people are willing to wear my pieces without any formal direction from me. Ultimately I am thinking about my work in a festival context which is why the videos of my work are normally just me dancing around in them as I envision people dancing in them to music. Drag incorporates dancing, music, and performance, and is often a feature of many festivals so it is actually quite fitting. I must keep an open mind at the closing event, and ask myself whether what they do with my pieces is something I want to repeat or whether it will serve as an indicator that this is not the way I want me pieces to be used.
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