'Wow! we've got a Gallery Space', and other reflections on the week.

It has been an amazing week as we approach the final hand-in and assessment day, in just one week's time.

There are a select group of regular students who have been working really hard and collaborating together in order to make the original studio space at the University into a fit for purpose, in fact, purpose-built, exhibition gallery space. In my own small way, I have been attending the premises every day and assisting with some of the carpentry and conversion. Once the conversions have physically been completed, the team of students have then come into each studio and totally repainted the area from top to bottom in a white emulsion, leaving a tabula rasa for each course student to use as their own presentation space.

With a whole week to go, everyone is well placed to use the whole five days to position each of their works in the most effective aesthetic and meaningful manner; myself also included of course.

As I have mentioned already in previous blogs, my own final piece which I have now entitled "Quad Ultemam Partem", which loosely translates from Latin as "That Final Piece".  I chose to translate this into latin to give a further ambiguity of sense, by suggesting the idea of the relic (i.e. the fragment), but also to "make special" in a monumental link too, to the ancient / temporal / non-time bound object.

Hadfield, G. (2016), "Quod Ultimam Partem", [Photograph, - Mixed media sculpture, Wood, Galvanized chicken-wire,
and news-print as substrate: covered with a papier mache composite of cross-cut shredded confidential waste,
shredded credit cards x2, domestic detritus, lint & human hair]. Approx. 2000mm * 1200mm.

The work is virtually ready to be positioned, well in time for the assessments and gallery exhibition to take place. Before I do this, however, I wanted to take this whole last week to just think carefully as to how I will best achieve this. As a result of that open question to myself, I sought some confirmation of my own thoughts from my tutor today...  (This is the first time over the last two weeks that I have approached them to elicit opinion, as I have tried to make sure I have thoroughly questioned myself and generally independently tested myself, before seeking supervisory advice...).
.... I'm delighted to say that his reaction on seeing my sculpture in its completed state for the first time, was a very genuine exclamation of "wow!" Together with a broad smile, which indicated to me that I had in fact succeeded in creating something with great aura and presence, (which of course were as per my intentions).

Conclusions;

• A really useful confirmatory conversation took place today and I was highly encouraged by the enthusiasm and interest that might tutor genuinely showed in my work.
• As a small reward to myself, and by way of thanking my dear patient wife, we both then visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, just outside Wakefield, some 10 to 15 miles away from the University.
• For completeness, I truly believe that many of the sculptures within this open exhibition space all had strong referential contemporary links to each other, but moreover, I felt that my own work fitted in perfectly with regards to the context of those professionally produced works as well.
• I have therefore come away from the Sculpture Park with renewed enthusiasm, ready to provide an innovative demonstration, not only my portfolio of works for the past academic year, but also to present my whole body of work in such a way that an extremely strong narrative can be seen throughout the journey of my practice development.