Blog 3, February 10th, 2017
With quiet excitement and some shyness we gather for the first time. Most of us meet at Tanel’s opening at Avid amid the noise and tilted plinths holding his exquisite work.
The afternoon’s presentations reveal we are a diverse group with wide-ranging practices.
Sunday brings us down to earth with a bit of a thud – we have responsibilities that will test our abilities – but there is an immediate enthusiasm too – and the recognition that by all of us contributing we will succeed.
The masterclass runs from Monday to Thursday, mornings spend looking at parts of the presentation on exhibitions we have all prepared. As always this is enlightening– wonderful to see the examples and artists other people have included/discovered. The afternoon is spent working on various exhibitions of our own.
Wednesday and Thursday we work in small groups to put on ‘real’ shows. I’m working with Jennifer Laracy and Brendon Monson. There is an intense period of discussion to try to pin down the main idea and then frantic work to create all the supporting structure of the show (catalogue*, poster, invitation etc.), find a location, do the set-up. Of course the weather does not co-operate and we are soaked walking from venue to venue. But the results are great and leave us feeling that when the time comes for our Auckland show we are well prepared and that we have made such useful progress in establishing trust and communication to carry us forward.
*One of the options was to write an essay for the catalogue and as both Brendon and Jennifer had the skills to work on design elements, my contribution was to dash off some writing (and have a little bit of fun):