neonascent

Due to certain limitations and controls set on the Photomedia students’ first exhibition, Hayden and I felt there needed to be a parallel exhibition through which to allow free artistic expression. The Salon des Refusés of Paris being taken as a righteous presidence. Not only did the lecturers dictating the composition of the exhibition give a specific format for the prints, all images (around 25) had to form part of a single narrative.

An argument given to me was that it allowed the students to go through the motions and get to grips with arranging an exhibition, while allowing the final product to be coherent and professional-looking, instead of just a hodge-podge of unrelated images. I was initially taken aback by this response, assuming that my failure to hold the same priorities was just indicative of the rift between Photomedia and Sculpture. However I cannot accept these responses. We are studying Fine Arts and not Art Administration. The free artistic creativity of the photo students was being compromised for ease of presentation. I vehemently oppose the emasculation of the artist to a narrative they did not choose. The exhibition flew in the face of warnings against over-determination of art (commonly expressed through “less is more”), and reduced everyones work to a very static and liminal level of signification; The subtlety of those very good prints was lost to the explicitness of those arround them. One supporter of the exhibition had the cheek to suggest all was okay, because most people didn’t recognise that the prints formed a narrative!

Justification having been made, we set about transforming the front room of my shared house into an exhibition space. After measures of blood, sweat, and frustration the beast was done. Opening night was a huge success, with much high-arty enjoyment of free alcohol. Psychoacoustic performed an ambient set to the delights of all.

Images of the exhibition layout are on Flickr, as well as promotional/advertising material, for your interested eyes.