hello, it's me again! Paddy Laloe is back. (by the way, there's an accent above the 'e' in Laloe. It sounds like Lallowee.) So, in this section Part B: Explore I'm going to tell you about when I visited Jerwood Gallery in 2019 before the Pandemic happened, in fact, that was when I was um, how old was I? I was 7 wasn't I? Yes, I was 7. So, now we begin. The most interesting piece of work was the toilet bowl portrait 'Magi' by Sarah Lucas - a portrait of her artist friend Maggi Hambling. It was made from found objects including a coat hanger, light bulbs and a toilet bowl. It's very fascinating!!! I can't believe she actually used a toilet bowl, of all things a toilet bowl! |
So since art galleries are not actually open because of lockdown, I decided to check out an online site which has an actual virtual space. In case you don't know what I mean, I've included a link to the gallery I looked at: www.davidkordanskygallery.com/exhibitions/mary-weatherford4
The artist's name is Mary Weatherford and she creates abstract paintings. These are based on things she saw on a trip to Japan. I've included my favourite painting below, it's called Cosmos. I think it looks like my own paintings.
I'm so inspired by the virtual gallery that I'm going to try to make my own using an online tool called Matterport. I've downloaded the App on my Mum's phone and have already created a virtual picture of our dining room!
The artist's name is Mary Weatherford and she creates abstract paintings. These are based on things she saw on a trip to Japan. I've included my favourite painting below, it's called Cosmos. I think it looks like my own paintings.
I'm so inspired by the virtual gallery that I'm going to try to make my own using an online tool called Matterport. I've downloaded the App on my Mum's phone and have already created a virtual picture of our dining room!
Even though the gallery is closed right now to the public, a member of staff at Hastings Contemporary (called Suzy) agreed to answer our questions about the gallery by email. We asked her:
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Suzy's answers
- Hastings Contemporary exhibits modern and contemporary art – mainly painting. ‘Modern Art’ refers to art from the later 1800s (19th century) to about the 1960s. ‘Contemporary Art’ refers to art from about the 1960s to the present day. You already know that many artists work in media and materials other than painting – Hastings Contemporary has displayed sculptures, installations, textile art, ceramics and even a sauna, but our main focus is painting (and also drawing). I say: wow, I didn't know you had a sauna!
- My job is to support my colleague Rowan, the Visitor Services Manager, and I am Membership Coordinator. Hastings Contemporary has almost 2000 members and I look after all the filing, letters, sending out membership cards, and keeping track of memberships. I do this in the office and it mainly involves working on my computer. I encourage new people to join as members and existing members to renew their memberships. I also do general administration jobs to help other members of the team, such as ordering stationery, and very importantly ordering tea, coffee, biscuits etc for staff and volunteers! When the gallery is open I also work at the front desk as part of the Front of House team, welcoming visitors, taking payments, and selling items in the shop. I also take turns invigilating the galleries (standing in the galleries keeping the artwork safe and answering visitors’ questions) and checking that the toilets have soap, loo roll, etc. I help keep the shop tidy and make a note of anything that we need to reorder. At the end of the day we count the money in the till and make sure it adds up correctly. Since the beginning of the pandemic last year we have gone from seven full-time members of staff to three full-time and one part-time member of staff. At the moment, Rowan and I are only working three days a week and on furlough two days, so we are currently working part-time as well. Rowan and I are doing lots of things that we didn’t used to do as part of our main jobs. For example, as we don’t have a curator, I am checking artwork when it goes in and out of the building. I say: gosh! That sounds like a lot of work!
- It depends what’s in the exhibition! Usually a week to two weeks. Bear in mind that the first thing to do is to take down the previous exhibition. All the works have to be wrapped in the same packaging they arrived in before they are sent away. Sometimes one lorry will bring one lot of work and then take away another lot, sometimes we have several transport companies collecting and delivering artwork. It also depends who is lending the work (for example we might have 100 works all from the same lender coming from the same place, or it might be five works but from different galleries around the country), the size of the work, and sometimes extra conditions put on the lending. Some galleries send a courier with a work to make sure it is looked after and hung properly and that can take a lot of extra time. It also depends on how long it takes to decide where and how the work will be displayed, and how difficult that is to do (for example if a work is very heavy it might have to be on the ground floor). Hanging an exhibition involves the Director of Operations, the Curator, Director, and a team of technicians and is a busy time no matter what! It is a bit like an enormous game of Tetris at times but it is always very exciting to see a new exhibition going up. I say: No comment!
- Some exhibitions are planned 2-3 years in advance and might have been thought of before that. Others can happen quite quickly. In an ideal world our exhibition programme would be planned out about two years in advance … but it doesn’t always work like that here. That can be a good thing because we can be flexible about what we do, but it can be scary. I say: *faints* 2-3 years IN ADVANCE!!!???