MA Week 31 - "Made Here" - opening night and beyond

"Made Here" end of year show - opening night and beyond!

 It was fantastic to walk into the room on Friday afternoon and see everyone’s work hung. Despite it being a work in progress exhibition, it looked pretty polished and professional. One interesting point was that quite a lot of the work was black and white – prints, drawings and photographs. So my little boards added a splash of colour, a welcome foil to some of the other exhibits.

Next to other people’s pieces, I felt my work was a little bit small, and also that one of the boards (the blue and yellow one) could have been better. But there was such a buzz in the room that it barely mattered. We had a steady stream of visitors, and not only family and friends. A couple of people I know turned up unexpectedly, which was lovely, and they seemed to understand what I was trying to depict. I fell into conversation with a couple of people I’d never met, and they were encouraging and provided different viewpoints to my own. One particular point was the tension between the black/red pieces and the blue/yellow pieces. Which did they prefer? Did the colourways jostle for priority?

When people walked past without studying my works, I felt a little crestfallen initially, but then realised that not everybody is going to like everything. Don’t I go to galleries and “get” some works, but not others? Of course – and this is what is going to happen with my work.

The wine flowed and the evening passed all too quickly. I returned today with another friend and had a more critical look, both at our room and some of the other work. Our works may be smaller in scale and number, but they stand their own against many of the degree show pieces. There were a number of visitors to the room while we were there, which was gratifying. Overall I’m happy to say that both our room and my own contribution to the exhibition have gone much better than I expected.