It's really weird how as soon as you start thinking about how a piece of work is hung, it is all you can think about! I went into the University Gallery at the Uni of Leeds and was really intrigued by the methods they had used to hang the work. It was mostly paintings of previous students in Leeds and most were hung in the same way - with a screw system attached to the back of the pieces. These were either screwed directly into the walls or then attached to a wire and suspended from the top of the board/wall. It was really interesting to see that they had used the same fixings for both types of hanging, obviously to save both money and time. These are very sturdy mechanisms for supporting the pieces as a lot of them were very old pieces in heavy ostentatious gold frames! This is also something we have to consider when we display our work as a whole - the framing of pieces. In this exhibition I did notice that because of the difference in size, style and shape, the frames the works seemed slightly mishmashed. I think framing is often unnecessary and we will need to think about what frames, if any, are suitable for all our work to ensure that there is some consistency.
I also considered the lighting in the gallery. This picture makes it seem very dark, however it was actually very well lit. The windows had been covered by a semi transparent blind so the light was still getting through but without the distractions of the outside. There were long sections in the ceiling with numerous lights side by side, some were on and some weren't depending on the works around, the direction they were pointing was also adjustable. I think this worked really well, as it can be changed for each exhibition without too much problem, and the light can be directed at the pictures in any way to suit the work. There were also some pieces that had extra lighting pointing at the work which was mounted on the wall alongside the piece. I also noticed that the descriptions of the pieces were stuck on the walls/plinths with a foam sticky square like you get on birthday cards! This meant that they were raised off the wall, or the plinth to make more of a feature and to make it more inviting to the viewer. There was one sculpture where the description was just stuck onto the plinth and this gave an unprofessional air to the work, it looked as though there had been another piece of work there previously and no one had taken the time to present it properly.
I also considered the lighting in the gallery. This picture makes it seem very dark, however it was actually very well lit. The windows had been covered by a semi transparent blind so the light was still getting through but without the distractions of the outside. There were long sections in the ceiling with numerous lights side by side, some were on and some weren't depending on the works around, the direction they were pointing was also adjustable. I think this worked really well, as it can be changed for each exhibition without too much problem, and the light can be directed at the pictures in any way to suit the work. There were also some pieces that had extra lighting pointing at the work which was mounted on the wall alongside the piece. I also noticed that the descriptions of the pieces were stuck on the walls/plinths with a foam sticky square like you get on birthday cards! This meant that they were raised off the wall, or the plinth to make more of a feature and to make it more inviting to the viewer. There was one sculpture where the description was just stuck onto the plinth and this gave an unprofessional air to the work, it looked as though there had been another piece of work there previously and no one had taken the time to present it properly.
The close up shots of how work is hung are very interesting. More of the same would be great, you could then become an expert of the aesthetics of hanging.
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