Houston, We Have An Exhibition!

Here's an update, and a whole lot of images (!), on how our exhibition went at the window of 42 New Briggate with Test Space Leeds from the 7th to the 9th of June - it's a planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Me cleaning and preparing the window we displayed in - had to clear a previous artist's window mural.

Sophie hanging some of the planets - there's still a lot more to hang! (First two photos from the Test Space Leeds facebook photo album).

Some of the materials used... Some of the planets were surprisingly heavy even when they only made from polythene, so we had to use stronger and thicker wires to hold them.

Me with my big one! - check out http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/2010/06/houston-we-have-exhibition.html to see some of the planets I made, Sophie's are there too!

Here's our planetarium completed from the inside of 42 New Briggate, we've even hung the LED lights but they are not that visible as it's still daylight outside, it would be effective at night!

and outside...

Since the room is dark in the background it makes it easier to see the planets, we had to cut some from the wires and move them forward to more visible areas.

Here's another photo when it was a bit darker, around 8:45pm!


If you look closely you can see some of the LED lights -there's 5 of them altogether. They looked really good when they were spinning around as it made the lights flicker.... almost like an intergalactic disco! The lights should have lasted for a good couple of days until the exhibition needed to be taken down for the next batch of artists!

If we were to explain what our exhibition was about: it is our own playful concept of a solar system in a galaxy far, far away , inspired by heaps of sci-fi movies, books and games. It is a light-hearted and personal version, compared to the seriousness of the reality space. However, we have looked at many hubble telescope images which inspired us with the colours found in space, but took it a step further by experimenting with vivid colours, textures... creating imaginative gas giants to planets containing 'life'. It is kitsch, bold and out of this world... it is our planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Check out the Sputnik!

It was a wonderful experience to exhibit at 42 New Briggate, thanks to the Test Space Leeds guys! We hope to get this itty bitty planetarium exhibited in various locations in the future!

...

Our First External Exhibition!

Sophie and me (Bev) have been busy bees with the upcoming exhibition we have with Test Space Leeds, where we will be featuring galactic goodness at 42 New Briggate (near the Grand Theatre)! Here's the leaflet of the event:



And here's the space we will be working on - We'll be setting it up in the day time so people can have a peek at what we are doing!




And finally onto our productive painting and experimenting so far!

(Apologies for my grubby window!)

We created those textures with these acrylic mediums we bought - they're great for planet texture! Also used fake grass for model making - typically seen on model railways when creating the landscape. We've so far completed painting the small spheres!

Also look at these... Melted Planets!






Really different, huh? Also here's one of my concepts for the planets which reminds me of the melted spheres we made. The rest of my planetary concepts will be at: http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/

Hope you like what we've done so far! We're looking forward to our first exhibition outside uni!

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Our Proposed Idea For 42 New Briggate Window!

Here's our idea planned for the window space.... and this was the email/proposal we sent:

"Itty Bitty Art Committee to Neil, over!

Houston, we have an exhibition!

We're proposing to turn the window space into an itty bitty planetarium. Planets, comets and satellites suspended in front of a starry painted back drop. Each planet will have all its geography illustrated onto it, include hidden faces and the odd interplanetary outpost.

We'd like to suspend a constellation of approximately twenty galactic objects and have a little stand to place a bowl of business comets (three dimensional business cards).

Could we have the dimensions of the window space? When would you like this to be exhibited? Any other questions or comments please e-mail or call us.

Roger, over and out!"

The Itty Bitty Art Committee

Itty Bitty Locker Exhibition...

Sophie and I (Bev) are going to carry out our own little locker exhibition at in our course studio at Leeds College of Art! There are a few unused lockers, but so far we have started to coat the insides of two of them with white paint.

As you can see, the lockers are tall, deep and quite dark. We may need to install some lights inside to illuminate it! At the moment we are planning to exhibit our own work inside - ranging from two-dimensional and three-dimensional artworks. We are also considering in exhibiting artwork outside Itty Bitty Art Committee, which has to follow a specific theme that we set (generally small art), but we are still discussing about it!

Our aim is to get this locker project up and running after the Easter holidays, so we hope everyone has an enjoyable Easter!

The Henry Moore Institute Offers Us a Lift!

Today we braved through the snow and slushy ice to visit The Henry Moore Institute to enquire whether they had a tiny space where we could exhibit the artwork created by our Itty Bitty Art Committee.

http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/hmi/

A friendly fellow called Bruce, who works as a security guard at the gallery showed us two lifts to hold our exhibition. One was a lift for the disabled and the other was a teeny tiny lift, which apparently was meant to hold six people...

The guy behind the reception desk said he could get us permission to exhibit in this lift if we send him an email and he would forward it on to the manager. It would be great to get this space... so we better start cracking!

Some ideas from Bev...

Some spaces which could be considered for the itty bitty art gallery:

• lift
• locker
  (both Sophie's ideas!)
• cabinet
• shed
• book shelf
• a cove - in a wall, in a desk...
  

apartmenttherapy.com

csnsupply.com

Back at my home down South my house is full of plants that my mum places on the window sills, and cactuses which she also places there for a deterrent (it seems to work, but results in me getting prickled by the damn cactuses whenever I open the window). A deep set window can be made into an exhibition space. The window sill could display three dimensional works and paintings could be hung... plus it is a small space! People usually hang artwork on a wall, but how about a window? What effect does it make?

About the desks with the coves... I had these desks in the library at my secondary school for private study. A small space like this could easily accommodate a few little artworks. It looks very personal and there is enough space for two people to look into the cove, and there is only one angle you can view the exhibition. The surrounding walls block out all other distractions which focuses the attention to what goes on in that cove! I have to admit I quite like the desk for it's privacy, but they are quite a rare find!

There could be plenty more spaces out there, so if you have any wonderful ideas, feel free to let us know!