Today I had a meeting with the college’s recommended technician – Steve Moore – and fellow ‘MAer’ Laura to begin sorting out the specifics of the year’s Masters exhibition. It’s been more than a little intimidating given that we’re being assessed both on an individual and group basis, making it all the more important our display is as professional and well prepared as possible; however things are thankfully beginning to fall into place giving me a clear direction for the next month or so.
Initially, I’d loosely planned a kind of display block to have my work mounted around along with computer/TV screen to run a slideshow of comic pages:
This fell through almost immediately when I ran it by Steve as it would require more corner joining boards than he has to spare and cutting a hole in one for a screen is apparently out of the question; the only way I could realize it would be if I supplied and prepared ALL materials myself, something I’ve neither the time or money for.
So it is that I’ve settled on a compromise where my work will be displayed in a sort of ‘L’ shape in front of the College’s reception desk with the slide show running from a DVD player on a plinth. It will essentially be a 32ft length of wall space comprised of eight 600 x 800mm frames, the majority containing two A4 pieces ranging from concept work to finished art. Not what I originally had in mind but no worse for it.
With this cleared up, I’ve set out a list of to-do’s for myself to keep on top of preparing and make sure everything is ready for our assessment on the 13th of August:
– Select final pieces for display and plan arrangement: I’ll need to put some thought into this one and justify each piece in relation to my overall practice.
– Purchase and prepare mounting card: This needs to be done before the end of next week, I have fortunately been tipped off on a place where I can get it fairly cheap.
– Prepare business cards: One of my biggest noted failings at the MCM Expo, I need to design and order some before the end of the month.
– Arrange to print work: Again, I should have this sorted out by the end of the month to be safe. I’ll look into other options but currently, reusing the place that printed my first issue – Kallkwik – seems like a good bet.
– Make a DVD: Simple enough, just a functional DVD cycling through a slide show of comic pages in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
– Acquire a TV and DVD player: All being well I should have this sorted out by tomorrow.
– Finalise arrangements: This will be on Friday the 13th – oooooh! – I’ll need to have pretty much everything figured out and prepared by this point for setting up from the 6th of August.
– Organise folders: Besides adding unprinted work and writeups, it wouldn’t exactly hurt to ensure they’re in order generally and are easy to navigate.
– Continue developing comic: Obvious really but it’s been far too long since my last comic page and squeezing in some extra research wouldn’t hurt either.
– Final Evaluation: As I understand it this should be a 2000 word evaluation of the work done, justifying the decision-making, research and development which has taken place over the course of the MA, aswell as where I intend to take my practice next.
As always, a plethora of things to be doing in a relatively short amount of time. The grindstone beckons…
Growing Branch 