The night circus seems like such a distant blur now. We had this idea on feb 6, and set it up on april 23. It feels like a lot of build up of stress over endless weeks, and unfortunately I feel that I have done more stressing than actually using that time to contribute to the circus. I feel a bit guilty, really, since savannah did do a lot of work in organising and planning the whole thing (which she is stronger at). I did try my best though, we did do the physical part equally, and I did think a lot in the beginning about the actual theme around the night circus. I think it was also because at the same time, I was right in the middle of the lull in inspiration, though I did have an explosion of multiple ideas at the start when we were talking about the concept of the night circus and how our ideas overlapped and differed. I had too many ideas surrounding 'morphing' and photography and portraits that I ended up not doing any of them at all. Though aspects of those ideas did bleed into what I eventually presented in the set up.
Tom said I could think about how the circus links in with my studio work and, I realise it has been closely intertwined this whole time. I think I've forgotten how wonderful the idea is because the unnecessary stress has blinded me a bit. I remember how passionately I was jumping from one idea to the next then going into one idea then jumping out of it then diving into the possibility of another. Then it became a chaotic mess where there are too many ideas but not enough at the same time and everything kind of exploded and I don't remember what happened but I do know that at the heart of it all it very much ties into my practice, savannah and I both gravitate towards the strange, mysterious, uncanny, mythological, real/fantasy. I knew she was going to make her gnome sculptures, and a short documentary with the use of humour, whereas at the start I was looking at all the things that the circus reminded me of, which were mostly cartoons and films and books that I enjoy and had an impact on me. I am a little bit sad that those ideas did not explicitly come into fruition but they will always stay with me until the day they come up for air again.
In the end, though, my ideas surrounding the manipulating/morphing of faces did bleed into the exhibit. I included the short 1 minute experimentations - which included one of liquifying the (taxidermy) cheetah (from muséum d'histoire naturelle de marseille) against a video loop of a CD hanging from the building (of unite d'habitation) both footage from the marseille trip at the end of february/beginning of march. The other was footage from an aquarium in japan which I visited over the summer, and I have always been wanting to do something related to marine animals (my other great fear) and coincidentally, I was also having all these ideas surrounding the underwater (separate post) so it seemed perfect. My cheeky cat painting at the time was also nearly finished, so I included that as well.
We did have many physical challenges in the moving of walls, streamers, and actually constructing it, but one of the biggest issue was how small the space in the circus actually is. I wasn't surprised, seeing as there was only five walls, but it was definitely difficult to put works in there as well, especially when we were also displaying video work on a projection, there were many wires that we had to try and hide without much success, and loop over the circus wall...the actual wall did not allow normal nails to penetrate through for some odd reason, so tilly stapled her canvases, savannah used velcro, and I, desperate, used a plinth to balance my painting and small wooden shapes on. It was an odd display, but it kind of went with the strange circus. The week before I also designed posters and invitations for the event, which was very fun and I feel that I learn something new every time I challenge graphic design exercises head-on.
Overall, I am very glad I did it as this is my first real collaboration with an artist with similar ideas to mine, and I got to experience everything from the planning of concepts to physical construction. It was very useful in seeing how an idea can come into fruition and the possible difficulties that we may face. I have also never really done a larger-scale installation before, so this was a fantastic opportunity and I am grateful to have been able to do it, right in the lecture theatre. I would say one of the biggest successes was capturing the night circus' atmosphere right. It was mysterious as we envisioned - with only candlelight leading up into the doorway of the set up - and how it was gone in just a few hours, like it was never there before.
In the end, though, my ideas surrounding the manipulating/morphing of faces did bleed into the exhibit. I included the short 1 minute experimentations - which included one of liquifying the (taxidermy) cheetah (from muséum d'histoire naturelle de marseille) against a video loop of a CD hanging from the building (of unite d'habitation) both footage from the marseille trip at the end of february/beginning of march. The other was footage from an aquarium in japan which I visited over the summer, and I have always been wanting to do something related to marine animals (my other great fear) and coincidentally, I was also having all these ideas surrounding the underwater (separate post) so it seemed perfect. My cheeky cat painting at the time was also nearly finished, so I included that as well.
We did have many physical challenges in the moving of walls, streamers, and actually constructing it, but one of the biggest issue was how small the space in the circus actually is. I wasn't surprised, seeing as there was only five walls, but it was definitely difficult to put works in there as well, especially when we were also displaying video work on a projection, there were many wires that we had to try and hide without much success, and loop over the circus wall...the actual wall did not allow normal nails to penetrate through for some odd reason, so tilly stapled her canvases, savannah used velcro, and I, desperate, used a plinth to balance my painting and small wooden shapes on. It was an odd display, but it kind of went with the strange circus. The week before I also designed posters and invitations for the event, which was very fun and I feel that I learn something new every time I challenge graphic design exercises head-on.
Overall, I am very glad I did it as this is my first real collaboration with an artist with similar ideas to mine, and I got to experience everything from the planning of concepts to physical construction. It was very useful in seeing how an idea can come into fruition and the possible difficulties that we may face. I have also never really done a larger-scale installation before, so this was a fantastic opportunity and I am grateful to have been able to do it, right in the lecture theatre. I would say one of the biggest successes was capturing the night circus' atmosphere right. It was mysterious as we envisioned - with only candlelight leading up into the doorway of the set up - and how it was gone in just a few hours, like it was never there before.