Sometimes when you walk out from the cinema after watching an inspiring film you feel a rush of adrenaline, and your senses can feel heightened. Lately I have become interested in the way that we can experience these same feelings from exhibitions.
Inspiration is a feeling and an emotion.
These feelings can be triggered by different things. Sometimes exhibitions are in museums dripping with beautiful architectural features, how does this affect how we feel about the work we are viewing?
Sometimes exhibitions are displayed in constructed rooms, false walls, ceilings and atmospheric lighting, possibly even sound is added. Shows are designed to provide the best possible atmosphere in which to view the work...I would like to look into this more.
What is in my mind at the moment?
The production of a book and an exhibition. Two completely separate projects.
The V&A
In the architectural rooms at the V&A there was an exhibition on called 'King's Cross: Regenerating a London Landmark'. After recently documented the development of St. George's Park for the FA and Bowmer & Kirkland this exhibition caught my eye. It is a huge undertaking to document a construction like this and the project can result in some really interesting photography and information about a changing landscape. There is a feeling that something needs to be done with these photographs in order not to lose that history and seeing this exhibition has given me a few ideas about how the project could help to display some of the work and draw it to a close.
Tom Struth at The Portrait Gallery
A selection of family portraits by Struth are on display at the Portrait Gallery
Struth’s interest in photographing families relates to his own early experience of family albums. The photographs contained in albums form a compendium of information about individuals and their place within a genetically connected group. Struth’s family photographs explore the idea of connectedness, a context in which a person’s appearance, personality and psychology are formed. Characteristically, Struth’s sitters arrange themselves. The resulting images invite the viewer to contemplate the nature of the relationships depicted.
Having read the above quote from the NPG website there was an interest to see these portraits. As I am sure many of us have our own experiences and memories of family albums. Last year I worked on a project that involved being inspired by my own family photographs. For me it was more about the diffusion of childhood memories and understanding of truth, whereas for Struth it seems to be more about the family dynamics. Giving the families no direction gives us, the viewers, the opportunity to read their body language between one another, read their facial expressions, a slight insight into the possible relationships that are between them.
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